Recent reviews by jbcall

Timberborn is a resource management city-building survival game that I enjoy quite a lot. If you like city-building games & want a bit of a challenge, consider buying it.
Timberborn focuses more on water than any other city-builder I’ve ever played. Water determines whether your city lives or dies; to help with this, the player has plenty of tools to manage the water supply. A recent update to the game added badwater & badtides, which add an extra layer of complexity to the water system in a way that fits nicely with the rest of the game.
The variety of maps & difficulty settings serve to accommodate a wide range of skill levels. The easiest difficulty is relaxing 95% of the time, & it is challenging—but fair—the remaining 5% of the time. The hardest difficulty is relentless & unforgiving, but there are in-between options to suit most people’s preferences.
The two playable factions, Folktails & Iron Teeth, are appreciably different from each other, both mechanically & aesthetically. As much as I would love to see more factions added in the future, I don’t see it as necessary, for the game is already really good with just the two.
I really enjoy the game’s music & art style. The sharp contrast between the greenery of the wet season versus the barrenness of the dry season sells the idea that this is a post-apocalyptic world.
Timberborn is a fun city-building game for players who enjoy a bit of a challenge. It also has the lumberpunk beaver aesthetic, which I find to be charming. Despite still being in early access, the game is well polished, & I recommend it highly.

Update: Cities: Skylines stopped functioning on my computer which had 8 GB of RAM. When I upgraded to 16 GB, the game started working again. If your computer has less than 16 GB of RAM, it can't handle this game.

Cities: Skylines, a spiritual successor to the SimCity series, is the best city-building game I personally have ever played.


The traffic simulation is the most in-depth aspect of the game, and it provides plenty of interesting challenges for the player to deal with. The game provides tools such as mass transit, an intersection builder, and tunnels to manage traffic. Traffic is the one aspect of the game most open to micromanagement, but such things are not forced on the player in the early stages of city growth.

Other game systems, such as crime and healthcare, are not as well thought-out as the traffic, but they do contribute to having a good experience. I must say that the Monuments—big, expensive endgame buildings—are so powerful they make entire city services obsolete, and this makes city design less interesting because it removes a single challenge entirely.

The aesthetic of the game is lovely—the music is good, and the art is gorgeous—if only my computer could handle it. Despite the game’s many flaws (most of which are too minor for me to list here), it still is enjoyable and has held my attention for hundreds of hours.


Cities: Skylines is a huge game. Between the base game and all the DLCs and mods I have installed, it’s too intense for my computer to handle. Do note that the minimum specs listed on the Store page are the minimum needed to load the main menu, but to actually play the game you will need more than 8GB RAM. For reference, the computer I used to play this on has only 8GB RAM, and I turned the game to its lowest graphics setting, and still I found it better to measure frame rate in seconds per frame than in frames per second.

Don’t even think about buying this game unless you have a good gaming computer, or if you’re from the future and have a better computer than I do now. If you are absolutely sure your computer can handle this game, then it’s worth playing.

Slay the Spire is a highly enjoyable experience! You don’t need to have any prior familiarity with roguelikes or card games to enjoy it.


Slay the Spire is a single-player roguelike card game. With a wide selection of cards, enemies, and relics, each run is a unique experience. At the same time, it is completely feasible to memorize the attack patterns for each enemy and the functionality of each relic. The randomness forces the player to heavily adapt their strategy to the resources they’re given each run without feeling unfair.

At the easiest difficulties, it is possible to win with minimal skill if one is lucky enough. At the toughest difficulties, winning is only possible with careful planning and by assembling strong combos--even then, a bout of bad luck can be deadly. Despite this, Slay the Spire is not a game of chance. It is a game of skill—one’s skill at building and piloting a powerful deck. The game contains great strategic depth, making this skill difficult—and rewarding—to learn.


Most importantly, the game is fun. It’s fun to pick up new cards that radically change my strategy. It’s fun to build powerful combos that shred bosses. It’s fun to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. It’s fun to strategize fights to permanently improve cards or increase max HP.

Without a doubt, the highlight of Slay the Spire is assembling a crazy combo of cards, then executing that combo to the fullest. Each character has their own selection of cards that can do this and their own preferred style of combo to make. Of course, it’s just as easy to assemble only a mediocre collection of cards, struggle through half an Act, then die to the boss after drawing a dead hand. Every game loss is just an opportunity to start fresh.

I highly enjoy the game’s aesthetic. The visual style is ever so slightly charming. The music is good—not fantastic, but good nonetheless—and nicely complements the feel of each room, be it hallway fight, boss, or event. The lore is interesting but sparse—perfect for this style of game.

The Steam Workshop has a nice collection of mods for players to try out, including new characters, collections of relics, and quality-of-life improvements.


It is worth noting that your character is not a “good guy.” One could make convincing arguments that the player character is amoral or ruthless. Some people wish not to play as such a character.

An endless mode exists but frankly is not fun to play. This is an unavoidable result of the core design of the game (it being a roguelike and meant for short, difficult runs) and not a flaw of the design or execution. Endless runs are unfun simply because this game was meant to have an end.


I recommend Slay the Spire to people who like strategy, deckbuilding, and experimenting with new possibilities every run.

Portal is a great game. Go play it.
It’s a fantastic first-person-shooter puzzle game. (As an aside, whether it is actually a first-person shooter game is up for debate, as the game involves guns and shooting, but very little actual combat.)
Portal is a linear game, which ensures that players often know where to go to proceed, and they rarely feel like they’re going in the wrong direction. The progression from simpler to more complicated puzzles is satisfying. Halfway through the game, everything changes drastically, which is annoying at first, because the player is forced to re-learn which surfaces cannot have portals placed on them. The game could have smoothed this transition a bit by making these surfaces even rougher.
Portal’s linearity can feel limiting at times, as there are few opportunities to explore away from the critical path. However, the game is so short (less than 4 hours playtime) that it has no need for alternate routes or endings. The game is sufficient as-is. For those who enjoy using their brains, there are optional advanced maps that rework 6 of the puzzles to be significantly harder.
The game’s narrative stakes are life-or-death for the protagonist, which contrasts with the main antagonist’s funny personality. The game manages these stakes well for the player’s benefit by reloading the latest save upon player death, and the game autosaves whenever the player makes significant progress in a puzzle.
One of the greatest strengths of this game is that the portals are fun to use! Flinging around the rooms, jumping super high, shooting out two portals midair to chain epic moves…the puzzles are designed to push players to explore these moves. There are some crazy moves the player can make by exploiting the projectiles’ finite travel speed.
The portals are completely safe to use—anything caught inside a portal while it closes is gently pushed out one side. Fall damage does not exist, which gives the player confidence to try awesome moves in a safe environment.
Portal’s soundtrack is decent, and the background music, though always appropriate for the mood, doesn’t draw much attention. After completing the main storyline, the song that plays during the end credits is amazing.
The game’s graphics aren’t anything to write home about, except that the ability to look through an open portal is really useful. Each room conveys a clear mood, without the graphics ever being flashy or distracting. On the other hand, there is little to criticize about the game’s graphical design, either.
Buy Portal and play it! It’s worth the price, and it’s fun to play. A full playthrough takes less than 4 hours.

There’s not much praise I can give to Undertale that hasn’t already been given by other people smarter than I. It’s a magnificent game.
I honestly don’t have much to criticize about Undertale, except that perhaps the “you died” screen animation is too slow and can’t be skipped, so when I die during a boss fight, I have to wait a couple seconds before jumping right back into the action.
The story is pretty good, especially the part where the events will change depending on the player’s choices. At one level, the game comments on the way we play games. At another level, it makes us consider our actions (both in the game and in real life), their consequences, and what they say about us as people. The characters are lovable, each with their own quirks. It’s easy to become emotionally invested in them. During a fight, each monster has their own personality, which makes the whole experience often humorous.
I’ve never seen another combat system like the one in Undertale, and I have to say it’s super fun to use. Dodging projectiles, interacting with the characters, killing things…even though the combat system wasn’t really designed for certain types of combat, that doesn’t make the game any less fun to play.
The soundtrack is absolutely wonderful—especially the music from the boss fights. I listen to it often in my spare time.
Undertale has a way of toying with expectations about how games work, and with expectations in general. The result is a funny, emotional, and satisfying experience that hopefully causes its players to grow inside as people.
I recommend this game to every person who ever lived. It is that good, and the message it carries is that universal.
I recommend this game to people who enjoy a good story-based game with nice music and have an appreciation for humor.

Ori and the Blind Forest is a fun game; I do recommend it. I completed the main storyline in about 10 hours, so it’s a rather quick game, yet there was still depth left for me to explore.

The artwork of the game–both audial and visual–is beautiful, blending nicely with the mechanics to create the wonderful world of Nibel. The one gripe I have related to this is that Kuro (the giant bird) doesn’t quite look right. But otherwise, Nibel is breathtakingly beautiful.

The game mechanics are nicely balanced, and it is quite possible to finish without acquiring all of the abilities (as I did). Most importantly, they are fun to use, especially the Bash ability. It is fun to unlock new abilities to be able to enter new areas, and progression is designed so as not to overwhelm the player.

There is great variety in the visual and audial feel of the game, accomplished by the variety of regions on the map of Nibel–but there is little variety in the enemies. From region to region, from the beginning to the end of the game, the enemies are all (mostly) the same. As you progress, the enemies get tougher, and a couple foes are specific to the final region, but overall the enemies and combat feel relatively static. The combat itself is repetitive, with little need to adopt advanced strategies. Environmental traps can be used, but there is no requirement to do so. It is obvious that combat is not the focus of the game, but this is not a bad thing, since the other parts of the game are so well done.

The game crashed once while I was playing it. Only once–not a big deal.


Ori and the Blind Forest is a relaxing game to play, punctuated by occasional moments of high tension. If you are looking for a super-exciting high-adrenaline experience, then probably this game is not for you. This game is on the quieter side, with a slightly more restful pace and an interesting story (although the story isn’t super deep, it carries a nice message). Although Ori and the Blind Forest is not one of the greatest games of all time, it is still very fun to play, and is well worth the price.

Hollow Knight is, without a doubt, one of the greatest games I have ever played. The plot is well-crafted, the game mechanics are smooth, and a few lategame features ensure that the player has plenty of challenges to attempt. I absolutely recommend that you give this game a try.
I absolutely love the soundtrack. Christopher Larkin’s beautiful work lends each region of the map unique ambience, and the music grows epic during boss battles to match the opponent’s power and personality.
The visual artwork is beautiful as well. Yes, the game is about insects, but they are kind of cute (sometimes). Even the user interface is ornate, and the visual style is consistent with the atmosphere of the game.
The game mechanics are simple to learn, yet combine in amazing ways. At all times, they are expertly balanced. The progression is well-paced, with the player unlocking new moves even quite late into the game. To fully explore the world requires a bit of creativity in using the hero’s abilities to reach out-of-the-way places.
The world of Hallownest is amazing. I enjoy games about exploration–and this game contains a wide range of different regions, each with its own aesthetic feel and unique challenges (if anyone asks, my favorite region is Greenpath).
Hollow Knight is a story-driven game. The story is well-told through the speech of the characters, tablets with ancient writing, and even the visual feel of each area. The cast of characters contains a wide variety of unique people, each with their own contribution to the story. Each place feels as if it has a long history.
For those players who don’t care about the story, the player can choose not to listen to any of the characters without hindering their progress.
The combat in the game is thrilling, accompanied by exciting music and with a range of interesting foes. In addition to the bosses (more than 40), there are a handful of other challenges to complete with useful rewards.
Charms are one of the coolest features of the game. It’s fun to experiment with all the possible combinations to see what I can do. Some charms add new abilities, but most simply make existing ones better.
Hollow Knight is a very difficult game. Sometimes, the challenges can seem overwhelming and the rewards can be so small that you may wonder if it’s worth it. But playing the game is so much fun that yes, it is worth it.
The game does contain a few actual bugs (glitches), but they are minor and very few exist. They do not significantly impact the gameplay.
I had a lot of fun playing this game. I continually found myself exploring to find answers, only to walk away with more questions, yet the world was so interesting I had to keep exploring.
Hollow Knight is not just a work of art–it is a masterpiece. I recommend that you try it if you haven’t already.

Factorio is an amazing game where you create factories. The point of the game is to automate everything that can possible be automated. About the only part of the game that cannot be automated is designing the factory itself. The game takes place on an alien planet where the player character has crash-landed (the story is explained in more detail in the main campaign).

The gameplay and progression are extremely interesting, following a pattern of production chains that become ever more complex. But the complexity is not overwhelming, and the difficulty is reasonable. For those who like combat, the enemies of this game can be somewhat interesting (I do wish there was a little more variety, but they do present a good challenge), although others prefer to play on peaceful mode, and that's perfectly fine. I personally prefer having enemies because it forces the me to automate defense and repair. The game has both single- and multiplayer modes so one can enjoy the game alone or with their friends.

The aesthetics of this game are good. The atmosphere of the game is very immersive, the music is good, and the art style meshes nicely with the industrial theme. The user interface is pretty easy to use, and the style is pretty consistent.

One of the major features of the design of this game is that the entities are all pretty simple by themselves, but they can be combined together in endless ways. This elegance leads to a lot of emergent variety every time I play. In addition, the game has a lot of replay value. Each map is randomly generated with lots of settings the player can configure, or use a preset configuration. In addition there are a handful of campaigns and scenarios to try, each with a different feel. And finally, the game has a ton of mods that can be combined in virtually infinite ways, which can change the game drastically. In addition, each time I start a new world I understand how to play better and have new ideas to try in my new factories. I am constantly learning how to design better factories.

Since the game is in early access (as of January 2019), the developers are still working on polishing the game. Certain elements of the game, such as the circuit and logistic networks, are a little tricky to figure out. I am aware, however, that the developers (as of January 2019) are planning on adding more tutorials to the game to help new players. In addition, there are a few features of the game that feel a little underdeveloped, such as the pollution and the combat, but that does not detract from the core features of the game.

Also, the developers are good. They are active in the community and have an interest in improving the game for everyone (for example, they have implemented a lot of modding API features due to requests). They have spent countless hours optimizing the game so it runs fast, and they have devoted a lot of effort to making this game better for new players (as of January 2019 they are still adding more tutorials).

Overall, this game is just amazing, and I recommend that you try it. In fact, it is one of the best games I have ever played. I thoroughly enjoy playing Factorio.

Full Bore is a story-driven puzzle-adventure game in which the player plays a boar. The goal of the game is to complete the story and be the hero of boarkind, but exploration and treasure-hunting are other goals. In order to progress through the game, the player must solve puzzles. As one progresses farther into the game, the more complex and difficult the puzzles become. The mysteries unfold as the player reads lore from many years ago, enters another dimension, and explores 5 different regions of the world.
The game is usually paced at whatever speed the player wants, allowing for think time to figure out the puzzle. A few levels are high-speed action levels, in which making a mistake can be deadly. Thankfully, a handy rewind feature can help solve the trickier puzzles, and the world map keeps track of which areas have been completed and which areas have not.
The world also contains a handful of non-player-characters that the player can chat with, gaining more information about the world of Full Bore.
The levels themselves tell stories--blast marks, skeletons and broken trusses tell the stories of what people did long ago. The background music is very catchy and I love hearing it over and over. The game designers did a good job of giving levels atmosphere, some levels I feel at home in, others creep me out. The game map can be explored freely and at the player's pace, and a warp system allows the player to teleport from one region to another very quickly. In most cases, if you get stuck on one puzzle, there are plenty more to figure out.
Even after game completion, there is still stuff your boar can do--find hidden rooms, talk to NPCs, or try to solve the puzzles again!

I liked this game--a thinking game with a great story beneath it. This game is good for people that like logic puzzles and working out their brain. If you love good stories, this might also be the game for you. Depending on how easily you solve puzzles, this game may take anywhere between a few hours to a few days or more to solve.
I would recommend this game for anyone who wants to stretch their mind, learn a good story, wander aimlessly underground, race through a mineshaft, or just have fun in general.