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The Bad

DD2's inaugural arrival hosted a litany of vexations, namely performance issues necessitating generous optimization + quote-unquote "microtransactions." For the 1st week of the game's release, I was unable 2 surpass an hour w/in character creation w/out it crashing, thus obliterating my finely-tuned deliberation of detail & consequently, gnawing at faith & morale. This happened to me 9 times, 2 the point where I had 2 permanently cap my max FPS to 30 for the entirety of my playthru, so I am unaware if this has been remedied or not. 4 reference, I operate from an laptop w/ an i7-9700 Intel Core, RTX 2070, + 16GB of RAM, but I had heard of ppl from both low ends 2 top-of-the-line computers enclosed in the spectrum experiencing identical & bilateral complications, signifying that these hindrances were server-side rather than at fault of the players. Also, glaringly important to mention: thruout my 21 years of investment in video games + immersion in the culture, a game being unplayable at launch has never ever happened to me. This is coming from someone who played No Man's Sky (whose main point of contention was content + faithless promises), Anthem (soulless), + Cyberpunk 2077 (on a base PS4) all at launch.

On the real-world coinage-buyable items, these can all be obtained w/in the game & are not atypical to this adaptational sequel, either. Besides these, further grievances can be accredited 2 a lapse in judgment during development. Instead of improved QOL mechanics or outright modernistic implements since its predecessors ½ a decade + over a decade ago, characteristics wholly remained the same, & if these features did not remain homogenous, they assuredly sphacelated in caliber post-Dark Arisen. Excuse my language, but some of these stagnated examples include ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ quest design, repeatability bound 2 the confines of enemy diversity—according 2 the currently updated Wiki + my personal experience, I have categorized 16 different enemy types in totality w/ variants adjacent 2 their original forms; exampli gratia harpies, venin harpies, goreharpies, succubi, or minotaurs & goreminotaurs. Agnate 2 that dogma (no pun intended), it'd translate to 2 cardinal genera. There are only 3 truly unique enemies (yr epochal nemesis—the Dragon, the Sphinx, & Talos/the Guardian Gigantus ). The rest, even endgame bosses residing in the Unmoored world , along w/ the gorgon/Medusa + thy looming Dullahan beguile duplicates.

Supplementary to DD2's lion's share of exigent corollaries, rudimentary functions such as dodging, double-jumping, & levitation are locked 2 yr distinctive vocation. This isn't exclusive 2 DD2 nor an unprecedented tiding, but the ebb + flow of endurant meandering on ordinarily ambagious routes just 2 alter yr class in villages + capitol cities in a world where fast travel is inherently synchronous w/ premium & finite Ferrystones, it amasses tedium rapidly. Pray that U aren't a completionist analogous 2 myself, or this is remarkably more egregious. Indelibly pursuing the total 240 Seeker's Tokens w/out the infinite levitate mod would've emerged as a copiously Sisyphean endeavor, + would've also oppressively devalued the novelty of exploration. Mapgenie, or other mods, ofc, also facilitate potentiality here. Graphical dilemmas arise w/ abominable FSR execution & temporal anti-aliasing; combat paradigms are more so upgraded reproductions of each other (Mage & Sorcerer, Archer & Magick Archer, which is just ez-mode 4 the initial vocation, Fighter & Warrior, etc.), but Steam has an 8k-char limit. Whether castigation is 2 be beheld by Itsuno, Capcom, the RE Engine, or everything foregone, no 1 can objectively establish.

The Good

Symmetrically acclimatized, I'll impart the game's alluring properties, some exceptional as opposed 2 contemporaries. The realm of DD2 emphasizes liberation above all else, catalyzing anomalous occurrences. Cognate 2 Monster Hunter, Griffins R emboldened by the perceptively Lilliputian quarry below, routinely executing Kamikaze incursions, tantamount 2 that of the B52 Bomber/Bazelgeuse. Territorial rivalry thru means of Epicurean Kaiju throes transpire frequently: Drakes & Armored Cyclops' reconcile their differences on the Ancient Battlegrounds, a location boasting interactively destructive Ballistas + Trebuchets. Albeit proprietary to reptilian & amphibian species, derrières are predisposed 2 amputation, achievable w/ most weapons (I preferred to play as an Archer), which U can craft superlative remedies w/. At Checkpoint Rest Town, in-between Vermund & Battahl, a dubious scrap + forgery emporium flourishes in the clandestine borders of the municipality. Out of principle, I bestowed a genuine article of a Jadeite Orb on a struggling merchant & then presented the forgery 2 the overbearing + ambiguously ethical employer. I bribed my accomplice w/ 6,000 gold & received 12,000 more 4 "authenticating" the orb. Parenthetically, gold + rift crystals (the secondary currency) R bountiful in DD2, contingent on traversal + combat. 

Before I persevere, the topographical open-world abides by a canonical + political state of dichotomy: Vermund, defined by the gossamery gale delicately swaying individual tufts of the grasslands, foliage-dense Elm trees stimulative on a technical level, as the verdant boughs R no longer indeterminable masses of shape. The Capitol Kingdom of Vernworth is situated on terra firma reminiscent of a peninsula, besieged by Triticum farmlands, a temperate biome, + mountainous ranges in the furthest reaches of the province. Battahl, a Beastren region governed by the Empress Nadinia, is a capacious locality swallowed by an arenicolous Sahara. Xerothermic canyons overshadow the sporadic yet tapered streams, & any abundance of vegetation would B peculiar. In archaic history, these 2 dominions were at odds w/ each other, & prejudice against Beastren + humans alike prevails, no matter which end of the continent & spectrum y'r a part of. Garms, Coral Snake bandits, horned lizards, & redwolves populate the adversarial caches, but unlike Vermund, there R ropeway stations designated 4 transportation. Immutable, the Sun & Stars ostentatiously vaunt their phases across the skyline every day + night, w/out fail. 

Confrontation-wise, some of the most cherished opponents from my playthru were the symptomatically noxious & defective Lesser Drakes, deriving from a Frankenstein-esque procedure only known 2 those affiliated w/ the secretive society of the Forbidden Magick Research Lab in Bakbattahl) . Any adversary gasconading a multitude of figurative Bullseye target loci, like the Lesser Drake's pus-laden boils enveloping its comprehensive anatomical constitution + vital organs, was felicific 2 strike accurately, or "Strike true!" as the Pawns so ceaselessly proclaim, akin 2 the bursting of a defiant protuberance upon the skin... sometimes literally. Clambering upside a gargantuan saboteur is as satiating as it was in Shadow of the Colossus, & as 4 the aforementioned Pawns, or humans w/out will that heed the Arisen's every imperative; they're another attribute of DD2 that is simultaneously endearing + bothersome, from their helpful banter 2 clumsiness guiding them straight 2 the Brine.

Epilogue

From the ramblings of either a Schizophrenic elderly man or a 4th-wall-breaking narrator inhabiting the coastline of Harve Village 2 flocculent & gynocentric Ogres, DD2 has as many refreshingly impressive qualities as it does abhorrent ones. Obiter dictum, the game more so emits the ambiance of an inferior remake than a sequel, but regardless, does harbor reserves of potential.

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Not 2 dissimilar when analogized against MTaP, the new installment; MTaSr conceptualizes similarly. U take on the role of a "Builder,"  which appears 2 combine architectural talent, the duty of reinforcement of infrastructure, creation of subsidiary knick-knacks, mining, farming, tending to gardening, & the responsibility of inclining anent becoming the unequivocal source of all material utilized 4 every routine assignment bequeathed to U by yr Sandrocker handlers. But fret not, for yr vocational dealings abdicate multi-dimensional facets, proceeding from menial, immaterial routines (this ambiance tends 2 emanate after a hundred or so commissions.) 2 down-right congenital, well-regarded, moralistic duties. Sandrock resides in a quintessence of disrepair, w/ its citizens plagued by bandits, hostile anthropomorphic lizard-ppl, schismatic bad actors, & environmental hardships. The biome of SR is arid, seldom receiving rainfall, the azure waters of its revered oasis desiccating unfalteringly. "Conserve water! Uphold Telesis!" the inhabitants chant, all 2 evident of their everlastingly amplifying quandary. 

Both games in the My Time sequence actualize an invocation of wonder when incipiently reaching yr destination. The composition of the skyline never faltered heedful 2 my fascination, immaculately flaunting towering structures in the distance, the amiable cityscape boasting diagonally elevated buildings. There is a simultaneous yet contradictory dichotomy that emerges: the town feels cordial, familiar even, & yet still, I am utterly captivated by my incessant curiosity, my compulsion 2 effectuate a conquest of categorical exploration in a foreign district nearly bubbling over.

Delving into the minutiae, in commencement, customization brandishes 13 options concerning appearance, each of which conceals idiosyncratic fine-tuning. Once indulged, yr oriented toward the game's seasonal administration system, operational in almanac form. Aside the prototypical Gregorian calendar, MTaSr portrays chronology w/in 4 szns: "Spring," "Summer," "Winter," etc., depicting a complete yr. As brief as that may be, the modus operandi 4 sunrise-2-sunset thereupon yields 4 no longer than 6 real-time minutes. If U'd opt 4 appositely assembled endeavors, I'd propose a modification of the in-game settings tempo slider. A distinct flaw 4 the life-sim/management genre, MTaSr culminates infeasible impracticality; the stamina meter is predominately devoured by its consumptionary design. W/ substratum contexture, a doubly-binded conundrum occurs evermore, endogenously ensnared w/in knots incapable of fathoming severance.

The tenacity of associated endurance & vitality allotment shall assuredly achieve proliferation w/ each level upgrade, EXP points R disseminated thru axiomatic comprehension: physical labor, quests, etc. MTaSr conjointly encysts a skill tree, housing 4 definite components: "Gathering," "Workshop," "Combat," & "Social." In generality, these R preponderantly self-explanatory, but 4 structural motivations, I'll administer clarification regarding their diagnostic aspirations. 

Gathering, most relatively porous of all, governs athwart a scopic array of 4 sovereign yet intertwining tributaries: fortitude mastery & diminution, accumulation of treasure, scraps/dregs, herbs, & recycling, geological expertise + aptitude in the detection of reliquary artifacts, lumber harvesting, & sandfishing. Feature-wise, there exists a meritorious inclusion of ensconcing yr descried antiquities 2 autonomously boost relations in respect 2 the manifold occupants of SR. Individual denizens may be further satiated by distinctive novelties, proselytizing the technique into an intentional phenomenon rather than a passive one. Moreover, aught is w/in the bounds of possibility in this realm. Compulsory auscultation in the presence of Cooper (SR's representative conversationalist.) heightened my stamina threshold. In other anomalous encounters, Pen, the unverified but self-proclaimed "Protector of SR," produces a quest apropos of shattering a bewitching & amorphous reflection, as Pen recalcitrantly succumbs 2 a perpetual state of narcissism, a dilemma reminiscent of The Book of Disquiet. 

"Man shouldn't be able 2 see his own face—there's nothing more sinister. Nature gave him the gift of not being able 2 see it, & of not being able to stare into his own eyes. Only in the water of rivers & ponds could he look at his face. & the very posture he had 2 assume was symbolic. He had 2 bend over, stoop down, & commit to the ignominy of beholding himself. The inventor of the mirror poisoned the human heart."

Solitarily, by fragmentizing this object can Pen budge, granting U the appellation of "Assistant Protector in Training," which is somewhat of a favorable development from personifying the denomination of "Skinny Arms.".

The Workshop heading deals in fuel & water conservation, motorized production, refinery, filtration, livestock oversight, horticulture, & there4 the bulk of economics at yr enterprise. U'll primarily be operating from home at customizably dispersed workstations. Ample R the classifications, from an automated assembly table 2 jewelry processing, industrial furnaces, etc,. In the city, Qi supervises the Research Station, where yr able 2 aggrandize machinery & its stippled capabilities. 

Combat is unexpected 4 a pacifistic farm simulator, but when it ensues, it elicits a recollection of warfare in Square Enix's Final Fantasy 15. There are 4 weapon designations to elect 4, indexed from heavy swords & daggers 2 a sword & shield, or a spear. Later in-game, you can obtain firearms & legendary weapons, including my cherished adjunct incarnated as a cyberpunk-esque digital blue katana: the Altair-RX-67. Unrelated, while this is no singular incidence, MTaSr conceives several humorous references, 1 illustrating the developer's appreciation 4 the Gundam series w/ a long-lasting nod 2 it in the Gungam Mobile Suit questline spearheaded by Qi. 

Finally, the Social section rewards U w/ perks 4 communal pursuits like parties, gift-giving, simplistic chatting, romance, & other indiscriminate activities. 

While nonexclusive 2 Pen, therein materializes a glitch whilst undertaking the deliverance of a commission: Pen (but also Mayor Trudy, Amirah, etc.) teleports from the top of the municipality to its nethermost regions, near the town's center. This renders the culmination of the task quite laborious. Other than that, I occasionally garnered immobility in maladroit margins. 

MTaSr doesn't outright inform U of a lot of the mechanics. It required me 2 trudge through at least a 3rd of what the game had to offer 2 discover that U retained the encumbrance of embarking on a sojourn journey 2 an edifice w/in the impending cosmopolis, w/ the intention of advancement of yr sundry of apparatus'. But that isn't the exclusively notable nor useful domicile in the burghal of SR; there prevails the Commerce Guild, which serves as a Builder headquarters, the Blue Moon Saloon, & thereafter, a barbershop, theme park, etc,. MTaSr flaunts an accessible main story, festive meteorological events, & assorted workings—horizontally extravagant, but ultimately vertically & tangibly finite. Despite everything, MTaSr is a worthwhile investment. My uncustomary grievance entangled itself w/in the arduous pilgrimage of obtaining all achievements: social points R grueling 2 amass, & at a certain point, I had concluded every available obligation in the game while commanding an unfulfilled gauge. This should B patched more reasonably; otherwise, it's an irrational grind.

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Apis Mellifera

I Commissioned Some Bees is a hidden object adventure (or hidden insect & relevant special items, such as a beekeeper or honey wand) delivered in a compactly brief encounter, with its legacy spanning 14 extra games existing under the same title. In an equivalent vein, "commissions" of cats and bunnies adjoin this series inside a bundle advertised on the store page.

Upon traversing the periphery of your Steam library, toward the language preferences (eleven flags indicate possibilities, and at the time of writing this, entails English, Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, and Swedish), and finally, the title screen (in between, it gives you a thoughtful message about disabling background music in the case of streaming), you uncover settings that adorn the bottom of the screen. It's entirely possible to switch to fullscreen with a singular click, adjust raw mouse or touch input, and fine-tune the framework for auditory composition with five alternative choices. White noise in the form of waves or a rainstorm only enhances the experience.

10 independent artworks are available, alongside 3 backup save files, lovingly displayed by what appears to be hand-drawn paper files. When ICSB is concluded, you can even reintroduce some of the bumblebees straight into their original environment, which doubles as a replayability mechanic.

Technical Bugs, Not Literal

When finalizing Picture 3, a glitch rendered me unable to fully conclude the search, disallowing the selection of the hindmost invertebrate. Whether I tapped the screen in multiple places and zoomed serriedly, eventually the fix was pinpointed after exiting the painting and making my way back into it. Clicking the anthropomorphic bee icon also blacked out my deck's screen, generating unresponsiveness. That was, again, mended by turning the device off and on. Malfunction Count: two.

Steam Deck Compatibility

The depiction here is perfect, presenting no lapse in performance or quality. I'd even go so far as to claim that it's the ideal platform for ICSB, versus PC/Laptops. In Procreate, an artistic application on the iPad, there is an issue where resizing selections blurs the pixel resolution. This is, assuredly, not an obstacle here. Whether far away or as close as feasible, the linework remains superb.

Penultimate Comments

In each illustration, easter eggs are scattered everywhere in conjunction with the aesthetic style. Sometimes saturated, and at additional times characterized by muted colors. Concepts like a Chinese dragon, frogmen reminiscent of Pepe (God forbid a psycho reads this and deems the game hateful or guilty of concealing a white supremacist agenda because of this inclusion), giant Hummingbirds, an Excalibur-esque claymore buried in the soil, and further things arise. Occasionally, bees are exceptionally concentrated, numerous in imminent proximity to each other, almost as if they are clustered. These tended to be the easier assignments. My eyes widened as soon as I scanned over the amount of bees in one portrait, there being as many as 252 to locate!

Overall, trophies are fairly straightforward to acquire. (The only requirement is 100%ing each individual image.) Purchasing I Commissioned Some Bees will only set you back about $0.00 USD, considering the fact that it's free, so if this is your forte, go for it... and even if it's not, once again, it's complimentary.

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Bits and Pieces

Through the deliverance of Stray, the developers at Annapurna Interactive unveil a feline-based, cyberpunk/post-apocalyptic, puzzle-platforming adventure that contemporaneously serves as a testament to the brilliance of cats and the ingenuity of artificial intelligence, all whilst acquainting you with nuanced themes concerning social commentary, particularly those relating to socioeconomic inequality/class disparity, autocratic conglomerates, mass-surveillance of an overcrowded populace, law enforcement allotted misconduct, and run-of-the-mill capitalistic greed. Stray is not an open-world game; it is instead linear, finite, and narrative-driven. Actions are manifested by the dint of context-sensitive button mashes rather than freeform movement, but it actually integrates swimmingly.

The current enactment of Walled City 99's bleak future (which appears to have taken inspiration from either the former Kowloon Walled City of Hong Kong, Tokyo, or both) takes place within a pocket-sized set of parameters that invoke claustrophobia when on the ground, in close proximity; but from an omnipresent perspective, this singular Walled City is an exemplification of many; the monolithic vastitude of greenery still subsisting beyond the combined hermetic fortifications that the masses are now imprisoned in. This specific conundrum reminds me of John Wheeler's theory that elementary quantum phenomena/states of matter do not exist until observed; although nobody but the Outsiders and wildlife are present to validate the corporality of a world outside of their edifice, nature flourishes indomitably.

Anyway, inside the industrialist-Brutalist structures, humankind has gone extinct. The remaining dynamism consists of a population of androids, now advanced enough to imitate human behavior and emotions. Mimicry goes as far as simulating social order, talents, hobbies (for example, a street musician called Morusque), activities like gardening, reproduction itself, and so on. The neon-bathed streets, alongside the verticality of the upper levels, co-opt a sundry of businesses (a laundromat dubbed Super Spirit Laundry, a tailor/open-air clothing market known as Grandma Clothing, a mechanical repair service deemed Elliot Programming, nightclubs, RAMen shops, and the list continues). Esoteric conspiracy theorists thrive, creating their own communities; Peacemakers/robocops christened as Sentinels abuse their power. Despite it all, individuality triumphs (in a game detail sense, not meta-socially).

What is my role here?

Simply put, you take control of a cat. Hailing from "the Outside" (which the denizens of Midtown and the Slums purport as mere fantasy), surrounded by participants of your species, a misstep during your stroll through the drably cinereal, vegetation-emblazoned embankment sends you blundering down the pipes leading to the caliginous gutter of the inner-city. You absorb the impact, and you endure. Stray is replete to the brim with adorable, accurately-scripted animations, permitting you to rub against people's legs, topple objects over, and trip robots (which is quite funny), along with fundamentally all domestic housecat mannerisms known to humanity. Scratching surfaces transfers claw indentations, and strutting through paint disperses paw tracks, both dissipating shortly after. Wreak havoc, and initiate the process of comprehending why cats do the things they do.

(Light spoilers below. Only integral to the plot, not the finale.)

Amid your perilous trek, danger awaits. The foreboding Neco corporation bioengineered flora that doesn't require sunlight, in juxtaposition to a more ominous invention, those being bacterial organisms responsible for waste management. Hundreds to thousands of years later, salmon-tinged, gloopy, flesh-like admixture congests every crevice of the blockaded rooftops. Light fixtures nestled within these globs are reminiscent of insect larvae. Antedating this, your passage to the Slums familiarizes you with dwarfish, albeit violently ravenous, critters labeled "Zurks." But don't worry; via your journey toward civilization, illuminated motifs guide you to an apartment housing a puny floating cyborg, who insists you refer to him as "B-12." Possibly an even more crucial character than yourself, B-12 exists to further the story, translate the robot's language, zap your enemies into ash particles, and so on. After this moment, you'll don a vest with a panel on the back, suitable for displaying technical prompts and transporting your new companion.

Closing Remarks

Fortunately, I can say that the glitches in this game were incredibly scarce. Stray performs smoothly and executes that accomplishment attractively. Ray tracing, coupled with kaleidoscopic ambient lighting on the backdrop of captivatingly designed + interactive environments, makes for a comfortably alluring equation. With an i7-9700 Intel Core, RTX 2070, and 16GB of RAM, the sole bug I happened upon pertained to a fallen bucket freezing and infinitely playing rolling audio while coincidently having lost the ability to budge. Since the sounds in-game echo across the landscape, these interactions can be especially irritating, unless you physically tune them out or lower the settings a few clicks. Also, while I genuinely believe that the central plot is captivating in all the desirable ways (you wonder what'll eventuate next, you develop bonds with the fictional characters athwart your screen, etc.) I feel that for some, it may beget lackluster impressions or reactions. And that's okay too!

The game can be completed in 2 hours (which I know because there is a speedrun achievement dedicated to this), or you can take 10 hours to soak up thought-provoking dialogue uttered by the robots, scout out collectibles, or plainly put, assume the form of the aggravating prankster you've always wanted to be. Stray may recapitulate to nothing more than a walking simulator for some, it may linger in your memory for a considerable amount of time; but regardless, I've deduced that it is a positively well-made experience, on par with the quality of a few AAA games. It's gut-wrenching, brimming with light-hearted puns, and overall multi-dimensional.

Whether you prefer humanoid protagonists or are a cat fanatic, I'd say that it's worth purchasing on sale. Another plus is that the platinum is ridiculously simple to attain, mainly due to chapter select being reloadable on any occasion (besides the unskippable cutscenes, that, hopefully, they will eventually patch out). I'd even go so far as to recommend this significantly more, given that you do have a specific interest in cats—you'll appreciate it from a standpoint that not everybody gets to undergo. Stray would most likely be around a 7/10 for me; it's not too overbearing, not too simplistic, and I firmly adhere to the belief that more video games should permit you to play as animals, which primarily stemmed from Okami holding the championship belt for existing as one of my utmost cherished games of all-time.

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A Portrait

Ender Lilies is a tenebrific narrative swaddled betwixt the confines of 2 sub-genres: Metroidvania & Souls-like. Your descent towards the abysmal paunch of what remains of the environment of Land's End occurs as a normal task, ordaining you to traverse thru points of interest characterized by an eye-catching watercolor aesthetic, continuing by way of 2D side-scrolling & platforming. When you're not using the fast travel mechanic provided to you further in the game, operating thruout a network of respites analogized as checkpoints & pit stops, enabling you to replenish vigor, save progress, & modify various load-outs of spectral chaperones, as well as relics that incorporate exemplary attributes, known as "buffs".

There are "special" examples, such as the Lost Heirloom, which sanitizes the protagonist's Blighted actualization developed over the passage of the sanctification cycle, making hasty disposal of her blood-red varicose veins, faded black hair, & tentacles. Fretia's Ring grants the resourcefulness of parrying, & other mementos take on the appearance of assorted artifacts, jewelry, & objects. A few of these include the Chains of Sorcery, which are good for assigning auxiliary slots; Soiled Prayer Beads bolster peak health; & the Priestess' Doll gives increased Healing Prayer uses, Some of these antiquities even belong to culminations of items; for ex., the Cracked Familiar Stone impedes some damage, & the Snowdrop Bracelet reduces an expanded amount.

You can use a controller for this experience. DualSense is an alternate option that works flawlessly when catering to this project, save for occasionally intense & unyielding lagging & glitches. You're not required to use 3rd-party remapping tools. Despite complying w/ system requirements, the stuttering seemed contrived. This ensued for my entire playthrough, prompting me to consider that the optimization may be subpar at best. It's dubious whether this game would fare better on an alternate computer, inadvertent to specialized circumstances. Another denominator is that the map has a toggleable legend: orange indicating consummated areas, blue denoting incompletion, white flecks translating to your current location, the color red classifying unexplored routes, & so on.

Fast travel is presented via a putrescent horse & carriage, this design only exemplifies 1 instance of the animalistic, yet kindred, apparitions intended to aid you during your encounters. The combat structure implores you to amass accumulated phantasmic servitors to gain additional techniques & abilities; the most memorable of these being the Umbral Knight, who awakens adjacent to you, antecedent to your slumber.

The Epochal Metamorphosis of the World: Lily & Ferin's Memoir

In proportion to its contemporaries, hurling one's self into the transit of the ebb & flow of conflict w/ any of the main bosses presents you w/ ways to maneuver & persist, beckoning you to reevaluate the precursory avenues perambulated beforehand. Your assignment is to purify the overtaking Blight surging thru the loam's arteries, & the duty of your adversaries is to bestow upon you their siphoned potential for navigating Land's End—passively, or violently.

The enemies are all capable of sentience, nurturing remembrances of their own. The first impression of this arrives w/ Guardian Siegrid, a monstrous creature swathed in a decrepit nun's garb—eternally slated to preside overhead the White Priestesses, her ulterior motive is categorized as that of reuniting beside her estranged & equally fearsome sister, Guardian Silva. This interaction later gives you the expertise to achieve a double jump, & her sibling imparts her Guardian Wings. Gerrod, the Elder Warrior, lets you breach pustulant grounds; Dark Witch Eleine allows underwater traversal; Ulv, the Mad Knight, confers wall-climbing & so forth.

Lily, the main character, is an adolescent fledgling acclimated to an enigmatic quality, bc she exists, as an imperishable & primordial entity. Lily & the Umbral Knight emanate a feeling of bewilderment, effectuating a concatenation where the shroud of mystique is reflected, consequent to the player. Lily is unsure of who she was, the Umbral Knight is dithering as to his place in this world, & the individual behind the screen becomes just as inquisitive. Lily's eventual discovery transpires as stumbling upon one of the deceased clones of herself littered around. She adopts her name, her initial formal designation evaporating w/in the vat of uncertainty. She is a copy of a copy, happening thruout the duration of generations, after all. "Though we have no precious memories of our own to cling to, we can pass on the hopes & dreams of those who have come before."

The conclusion incurred here is oxymoronically constituent; whilst the traveling companions accrued accept responsibility for the preservation of Lilie's safety, she is still abandoned to a state of vulnerability due to her physical exposition; traits that the guardians rallied do not possess. The revenants lend their destructive capability while Lily dances on the unguis of the brumal grasp of forfeiture, evading every baneful strike left in her wake.

The gritty terrain of Land's End harbors many secrets, amalgamated by virtue of a robust stream of hidden notes, moribund words, & the recital remnants of tragic endings that survived across the dimensions of history. The lore is revealed gradually, in non-linear fragments. You aren't the first pioneer of this macrocosm, you are its concluding voyage. All of the people of Land's End have turned into something parallel to the zombies we have IRL. The Blighted were transformed into misshapen monsters, in constant pursuit of violence & cannibalistic intentions. The Blight's true nature remained equivocal, presumed to be spurred by fury & despair. Destruction & anguish were inflicted on any subjects unlucky enough to be in their vicinity.

At its final stage of contagion, the victim would retain their sense of advertence, occupying psychological Hells beyond anyone's respective comprehension. Irreparably damaging the defiled &, in some cases, fusing conjointly, gestating hybrid abominations w/ heightened brawn, both sharing the inability to die thru ordinary means. The terrestrial cadaver of this venue prevails in a dichotomy of top & bottom; the landscape is plagued by the everlasting Rain of Death on the surface, & fermenting in the aphotic bowels is where the sanctuary inhabiting the Blight is located. Each of these parasitic afflictions yearns to reconverge, ardent to allocate portions of their calamitous reign atop the populace. 

A Reminiscent Culmination

Ender Lilies expedites its chronological sequence thru somnolence, attaining cognizance, guided en route to the dilemma you've abruptly been made aware of. A quartet of eras has fallen, each brimming w/ life. & yet, we've progressed past that, to a "civilization" devoid of humanity.

This grows more apparent as you advance thru every locale, the Stockade whispering suggestions of the depravity committed by the Dark Executioners; the Ruined Castle eager to transcribe details of the King's prioritization of transcending mortality in lieu of consociating w/ his offspring Julius, resulting in the kingdom collapsing into ruin whilst assailants belonging to his own coterie appeared in his final hours; the coven affiliated w/ the submerged Witch's Thicket seeking to proceed w/ their research; the curiosity-infused, sinewy constitution of the Verboten Domain; the ceaseless fray that occurred at the Twin Spires; & so on.

My opinion is that this game is an adventure worthy of praise, regardless of its technical blemishes. I'd suggest getting it whenever it goes on sale.

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About

Originally slated for exclusivity on the PS5, the Steam release of Bugsnax reintroduces us to the creators who once concocted Octodad, a title that exists in a similar conduit to this one when referencing Young Horses' whimsical but dark sense of humor. With an unusual premise & a themed score provided by Kero Kero Bonito, Bugsnax is guaranteed to invoke a feeling of curiosity, if nothing else. The game transpires in first-person, from the viewpoint of a journalist who is never named or shown & allows a singular customization option: the color of your fur. As a member of the Grumpus race, your destiny is to exert yourself in the field as an investigative reporter. With inadvertence to the commonly upheld silent protagonist trope, what remains of the cast (alongside the organisms themselves) is both fully & convincingly voice acted.

Amid your adventure on Snaktooth Island, you'll engage in the pursuit & capture of the game's namesake: bugsnax. Bugsnax are half-arthropod, half-snack creatures that assume the appearance of a myriad of different foods, the range fluctuating by size & method of transportation. The most substantial of these undertake the form of multiple-course meals, often capable of being separated into several components.

Scoopy Banoopy (a banana split comprised of ice cream and cherries) & the Preying Picantis (assorted Mexican foods, such as Tacroaches and Incherritos), are just two examples of these. In the averagely proportioned tier, you'll confront Flutterjams (airborne PB&J sandwiches), Spuddies (baked potatoes that exist in two variants, simplistic and loaded), & Bungers (plainly put, a wrapped burger coupled with fries), although there are more. Lastly, the miniature category embodies select rations, particularly provisions like Scorpenyos (Jalapeño scorpions), Snakpods (tiny, stationary, & rectangular bags of trail mix, jerky, pretzels, and so on), Noodlers (spicy Japanese ramen bowls), & fast-paced Kwookies (Oreos with legs), in addition to significantly more. 

There are, of course, various legendaries to quarrel with; (spoiler warning) like the Mothza Supreme (an Icarian pizza topped off w/ pepperoni, black olives, & cheese), who you'll convene with whilst tackling the scorching heat of the Sizzling Sands, the oversized Megamaki (a draconic sushi roll) inhabiting the Boiling Bay, & the Cheddaboardle Rex, who materializes in the DLC. Obviously, there are a few more bosses in tandem w/ these three, but you'll discern that info near the finale of your playthrough. (Spoiler ending.) 

There are over 100 species of bugsnax to collect if you're counting the DLC, which comes free with your purchase of the game. Don't allow the notion of this to overwhelm you, because this game is a perfect experience for someone seeking an ephemeral & pleasant encounter. Bugsnax necessitates about 10 to 25 hours to reach completion, with the second figure representing 100%. 

While you're helping out the community that arrived here prior to you, you'll be well-qualified to form bonds with distinctly dissimilar characters, absorb data concerning their unique personalities, & assist them with their individual troubles. Commit crimes with Cromdo Face, the pragmatic businessman with a laser-eye focus on his monetary gain; scrutinize Snaxburg's residents with Beffica Winklesnoot; mediate the marriage disputes of Wambus Troubleham (the farmer desperately trying to provide sustenance for civilization) & Triffany Lottablog (an aloof archaeologist with a nihilistic streak), or witness the queer romance between Chandlo Funkbun (the town's resident himbo gym bro) & Snorpy Fizzlebean (a scientific conspiracy theorist that frequently goes off the rails). Regardless of who you converse with, it's possible to locate one's self in an array of admiration, irritability, and melancholy. 

In your possession, there will be a journal that drastically reduces time spent on logistics, rendering it feasible to track your progress. This includes a section for side quests, lore involving new companions, a bestiary that even lists caloric intake, & the rest will be discovered during your run.

Sift through the remnants of your tools at your discretion, uncovering animalistic traps, a springboard that's known as the "Lunchpad," a puzzling apparatus referred to as the "Snaktivator" (which was designed by Flooty Fizzlebean, Snorpy's sibling and a stereotypically unethical scientist), the Buggy Ball (a clear hamster ball with a trained Strabby called Sprout encased inside), amongst many others. Whether you'd elect to use these contraptions by themselves or in combination with each other, there will always be innumerable available methods to ensnare the food that you supply the people of Snaxburg with.

Snaktooth Island has a variety of distinguished biomes to survey, attingent with plenty of endemic vegetation. Since the character you control "happens" to be allergic to bugsnax, you instead survive on sauce plants. Weenyworms (literal squirming hotdogs) are heavily dependent on ketchup; the critters living in the tundra-based habitat of Sugarpine Woods & Frosted Peak gravitate towards peanut butter; & the Pineantulas (a pineapple tarantula) & Crapples (apple-laden crustaceans) of the tropical beach cove labeled Simmering Springs prefer chocolate sauce, just to list a few cases. There are seven distinct condiments that you're able to utilize as bait with your trusty Sauce Slinger, in conjunction with hot sauce and cheese, accompanying grasslands, deserts, snowy mountains, & the foundation of a volcano. 

Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Enter

Your journey begins on the precipice of a breakthrough; the intrepid explorer Elizabert Megafig (who can only be compared to a Grumpus-tinged manifestation of Indiana Jones) invites you to Snaktooth Island through the chassis of sepia-hued video tapes. Even though your editor seems overly pessimistic, she bestows the knowledge that Elizabert is a woman who has a rocky history, having previously been involved with some sort of hoax. Despite this realization imbuing Elizabert's basis with skepticism, you heed her summons anyway.

(Spoilers again.) After making an entrance indicative of a negative omen, you'll meet a fellow Grumpus known as Filbo Fiddlepie who appears to be on the brink of death. Following learning how to apprehend bugsnax through a brief in-game tutorial, you'll dose Filbo w/ this unfamiliar food source. Subsequently, the game began to exude a sinister quality. Disregarding a typical digestive process, bugsnax' alternatively induces the growth of regenerative edible limbs in place of their former ones, which regretfully prompted me to envision the consequences of radioactivity in earlier titles such as Fallout. The mutations turn Grumpuses into mangled desecrations of their past selves, & the most insidious part of it, in totality, is the uncritical acceptance that permeates the air. The sole one seeming to protest this phenomenon is Shelda, a spiritualistic guru who likens bugsnax to toxins. One of the academic researchers in town eventually goes so far as to coin this irregularity as "Snakification".

Others may not notice at initial glance... However, I found the game to be creepy. There is room for other emotions, but the alarm bells ring perpetually in the background.

(Spoiler #2 conceding.) 

Final Thoughts

This rendition of the game permits controller support (which entails DualSense) & ran at a smooth 58–60 FPS for me on ultra graphical settings. I'm using a laptop containing 16GB of RAM, an RTX 2070, & an i7-9700 Intel Core, & I didn't come across any glitches, but there are a plethora of bugs, if you catch my drift. If you're a fan of Pokémon, you might appreciate this.

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General Information

Potentially one of the most disturbing games of the year, Martha is Dead unfolds as a slow-burn, first-person, psychological thriller. The main premise of the game entails Martha, the identical sibling to Giulia, of course, dying; and the rest is comprised of how people in her vicinity are affected by this, which is also interjacent to your eventual descent into madness. It certainly does surprise you with more than what seems plausible on the surface.

The controls are easy enough to grasp, being mostly point-and-click interactive with movements assisted by a WASD keyboard format. You, obviously, can use different layouts or a controller if you please, and you can play the game in a multitude of languages—Italian being both the innate choice and possibly the best one. The game includes a log for missed dialogue and subtitles, and while some documents in-game might be in English, they're mainly in Italian, so it isn't completely immersion shattering. There are also extra details that I appreciate, such as the daily tarot divinations.

Regardless of whatever technical choice you make, you will eventually assume the role of a twin sister situated in the Italian countryside of the 1940s, who is engrossed in a web of war, abuse, grief, and psychotic delusion. You are simply a victim of circumstance. This game definitely requires quite a heavy trigger warning prior to playing it, as there are a few pop-up messages preceding specific scenes. Martha is Dead is an ordeal that is RIFE with both realistic & gratuitous gore. 

The experience is heavy on atmosphere and accompanied by an eerie soundtrack, and the graphics are the icing on the cake. With that being said, the character models, along with environmental textures, can sometimes look wonky up close. Still, the game is capable of everyone's favorite buzzword, a.k.a. "ray tracing," and can easily result in your system heating up to some extent (it's probably necessary to mention here that I am playing on a laptop with an i7-9700 Intel Core, 16GB of RAM, and an RTX 2070.) 

In addition to that, it's worth saying that my playthroughs were significantly glitched, with me being unable to proceed with certain quests despite my position in the story. There were many occasions when I'd fly through the map after trying to do something as simplistic as riding my bicycle over a dirt hump. While hunting for the last two achievements, I would have to close out my game just to reset the location of my bike. As you'd guess, this ultimately became very draining after figuring out that these problems were not unique to a single condition and would recurrently show up. My game would, on occasion, have somewhat of a stuttering problem as well.

The White Lady

Martha is Dead begins with a view of a bedroom window, amongst a doting nanny retelling the story of a local cryptid: a homicidal wraith who slays a young woman every time fog descends upon the lake nearby. The reason for this stems from a traumatic event involving the drowning of the "White Lady" during a domestic situation regarding her and her significant other.

Although you may interpret this as the main focus of the game, the White Lady is predominantly made available in fleeting moments and photographs, most of which you have to actively try to discover. The other times she appears are within metaphors and coincidences parallel to the story; an eternally repetitive imprint on reality, i.e., "The house was a place of suffering."

Can a photo capture the soul?

One of the teeming questions that plague this game is having you navigate between major parts of the story through either the lens of a camera or from the audience of a puppeteer show at the theatre. Some of the first items & areas you're presented with either involve or consist of being gifted a camera, alongside your own personal darkroom to develop whatever tokens of interest you capture with it. If you're confused about how to progress, all you really have to do is keep an eye out for the hand-shaped button prompts, which routinely fill up with red. There are also collectibles, requiring you to pick up rolls of film and camera modifications that you find in and around your family's estate. This feature leads me to reminisce a lot about Fatal Frame and its mechanics with picture taking.

(Spoiler warnings from this point forward.)

The secondary perspective from which the story is conducted is through Giulia's childhood toy set; a theatre stage complete w/ drawn curtains, props, cardboard backgrounds, & dolls depicting her entire family. Unreachable without the key to her room, the rest of the plot is told through memories & hallucinations. Giulia is an unreputable protagonist, leading you to continuously second-guess whether what you're remembering witnessing is real or not. Giulia even makes a comment about how "deceiving one's self is sometimes necessary," adding a question asking "How could we survive otherwise?" I'd say that some of the experiences recalled through these mediums are too senseless to believe (like their mother boiling their dachshund alive), but my comparably cruel mother did something similar, so it's pretty accurate!

An Unfortunate Entanglement

Whether you're venturing outside under the cover of dusk or penetrating the depths of your dark house, there will only be a tiny flame emanating from an even more ineffectual lighter to guide your way. Your purpose, first & foremost, is to take on a body switch with Martha, due to your abusive mother's favoritism. Nobody could ever tell the two apart, and they took advantage of the mix-up whenever possible. Giulia does whatever objective is expected of Martha, suddenly embracing her daily habits of reading the morning newspaper and even going to absurd extremes such as pretending to be deaf, just as Martha had once done. What choice are you left with when dealing with a mother who never wanted you and an open opportunity, all while being confronted with the fear of disappointment?

Even though you pulled Martha's bloated corpse from the lake shore and witnessed her passing firsthand, the reaction has always been an internal debate. Your secondary motive here is to piece together the puzzle of how your sister died, even if that meant receiving confirmation that you had hurt her yourself. During the interval between all of this happening, there is a looming threat, augured by the dispute between the German command and the Partisans. When they're not exploiting the death and injury of your family to spread propaganda (your father is a general in the German military, which is why they take any notice), you'll sometimes hear cryptic radio transmissions seeping through the static. The Germans have started to investigate their own allies (the Italian Armed Forces), and will frequently stage events to further their agenda. 

Martha is Dead feels like the calm before the storm, expecting things to go abhorrently wrong even when life seems stabilized. One of the most precise descriptions here is the quote uttering that "Nothing is ever certain in wartime," and it's a bewitching ride almost from the very induction.

The Verdict

Overall, Martha is Dead was an encounter I mostly enjoyed, as long as I wasn't forced to figure out how to progress through game-breaking bugs. Luckily, the developers seem to be pretty focused on staying on top of patches and updates, so I doubt that any of these hiccups will survive for very long. It's a gripping adventure that will at best make you uncomfortable and at worst cause you to be confused, depressed, and sick to your stomach. I'd recommend it to anybody who isn't particularly sensitive to these things.

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Quick disclaimer, since I've fully completed the game (200 hours, all achievements, most quests, and close to every collectible item acquired: ashes of war, weaponry, armor sets, incantations, sorceries, etc.). I will now be reviewing it from the perspective of someone who has reached 100%. Now, the fallen leaves tell a story...

Elden Ring, Fromsoftware's rendition of an open-world roleplaying title, is a game that plunges you into the end results of the Shattering, a setting plagued by ruin and nostalgic specters of the past. The vast landscape (known in-game as the Lands Between, across the fog) encompasses all manner of things. There are beautiful vistas rife with golds, muted greys, browns, and greens, along with color schemes strangely reminiscent of previous franchises; such as Bloodborne's innate similarity to the secretive underground areas in the game, like Nokron, Sofria River Basin, or the home of Mohg's blood dynasty in Mohgwyn Palace. There are quaint little villages belonging to pot jars with limbs, cities (legacy dungeons) with sprawling architecture, and liturgical towns surrounding an academy that I can only compare to Hogwarts. 

Every area you visit contains plenty of secrets, and although playing can be frustrating at times, it teaches you patience, rationale, empathy, and is even humorous on occasion. I got my ass handed to me several times by overgrown lobsters, gravity, massively shapeshifting Rune bears, and sometimes when actual ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ overtakes you, there's not much you can do besides having a laugh and trying again. I do believe that Elden Ring is one of the most accessible games in the series, mainly due to how easy I found it, which, by all means— won't be an opinion shared by everyone. Fortunately speaking, though, the difficulty of each Soulsborne title tends to be incredibly subjective. Where one person may experience 30 "You Died" screens, the other may go through the challenge with a deficit in their effort. 

The level of diversity at play is another fascinating aspect of this world. The environment incorporates a healthy range of races, an extensive amount of varying walks of life, and intriguingly humanizing characteristics are applied to all of them. Regardless of whether you're clearing out the Misbegotten enemies invading Castle Morne on the Southernmost tip of the map, trudging through scarlet rot-infested swamps in Caelid, or attending the unsettling "festival" in the windmill village of Dominula (which is situated amidst the royalty-themed motifs of the Altus Plateau), you begin to get lost in the breathtaking allure of the land and the stories it has to tell. Both literally and figuratively (due to the verticality of the map), the game is the opposite of superficial. Simply revealing the topography of the land is a process in itself. 

Another thing that is hailed as a success whilst simultaneously being a matter of trials and tribulation, is the innumerable number of boss encounters (around 160 to be exact, and this includes both unique bosses and repeated ones). Don't let recurrent adversaries fool you either, because all of it aligns towards a purpose somewhere in the lore: destined death does not exist in this world, and many are trapped within a cycle of reincarnation. The demigods and legends all have their own motives and backstories; whether it is Rennala's deteriorating legacy, Morgott's ceaseless will to protect the Erdtree, or Radahn continuously holding the stars in a state of suspension, everyone and everything has more to uncover beyond your first impression of them. 

With Elden Ring, the creators figured out an ideal way to stay true to their roots while diving into new (and thankful) risks. The game perfectly meanders avoiding the mistakes its peers have made with issues like crowded UI (even after patch 1.03, the points of interest are never overwhelming) and a lack of player agency. Even more tantalizing is the way the game seems to completely fracture every prejudged tradition in the AAA market in a fashion that almost seems blasphemous. Even though it encourages skill; you can play in whatever way you see fit, convenience is sometimes a foreign concept, death is inevitable, and these features are all precisely why this is such a celebrated niche. 

While Elden Ring is not a flawless project, the creators certainly deserve the hype and reviews they have received across the board. Whether you agree or disagree, the care and support the developers are putting into the game implies that it can only get better from here on out. I truly do think that Elden Ring will end up igniting the passion and enjoyment for gaming that countless people seem to have lost, once again.

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Prior to posting this review, I achieved my ultimate goal of manually and fully completing each game in this series, including the spin-offs known as Little City and Pixel. By this, I mean to say that I have received every achievement possible, in the base games, along with every paid DLC.

I believe this allows me to speak on this topic with a full grasp of the scope of each and every game, together with all of their respective extra content. The Coloring Game course exists as a casual, but soothing experience in which you are allowed the chance to steadily work at your own pace whilst listening to an audiobook in the background, enjoying music, or however you prefer to spend your time toiling away on the game. Although these games may lack the qualities of any other "normal" game, (such as a main story, or character progression) I feel that this is where many of its pleasantries are located. It's much easier to create something perfect when there are fewer details riding on that chance, and instead only simplicity in its stead.

For this game specifically, I was particularly fond of several of the DLCs, such as the Fine Art installation (which was a lovely callback to the vastly detailed paintings of the previous games), Cats & Dogs, Halloween, the Demakes, and many more. The sole DLC I would not recommend would have to be Insta, as it is repetitive and overall displeasing to view. Coloring Game 4 ushers in plenty of brand-new quality-of-life features, several of which I hadn't even discovered until a few pictures in, only because I'm not exactly privy to the technical aspects of each game. Some DLCs (like Sports) might also appeal to other individuals more, for different reasoning. My personal favorite ritual is to fill in the blanks while listening to Horror and True Crime YouTube videos, but yours can be fully customizable, in honor of whatever you are personally intrigued by.

In Coloring Game 2, you can even upload your own personally curated images; although it is somewhat tricky to resize, pixelate, and generally alter the things you upload, and while I wish that the game would do it automatically, a guide would also be sufficiently helpful. The only "issues" I would mention (I put issues in quotation marks because they're genuinely trivial) are that sometimes the colors are identical to the non-filled in spaces, which forces me to periodically change the color of them from grey to green and so on. I'd appreciate it if there were more colors for that, especially ones indicative of opposites on the color wheel, like red or maybe even neons.

Regardless, these games are a satisfying fit for any player if your main goal is to pass some time and relax. They're free, you have a choice to pay for extra photographs, and you don't have to give your full attention to the screen. I'd say it's a reasonable compromise, but I mean that in a positive connotation.

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So, for the past few weeks or so, (48 hours but with breaks, not consecutively) PowerWash Simulator has occupied my life for a significant portion of time. Much like Viscera Cleanup Detail, its main selling point is the ability to satisfyingly clean things. You play as a faceless protagonist who isn't really much of a protagonist at all; considering they are anonymous. The main focal point of the game is to get your pressure washing business started up, and as you take on contracts, people hear about you through word of mouth; birthing an endless cycle of business and payment.

If you really want to write it off on the taxes for your virtual business, the game employs an online store where you can purchase work supplies. Don't worry, you don't need to use real money either. Although there isn't a superstore level of stock, the options are plentiful enough. Buy a colorful new suit (or gloves,) a skin or "modification" for your power washing device, attachments, cleaning liquids, and upgrade to even fancier, more costly tools: such as the Medium Duty Urban X U2, (which is $900) to the "Professional" Duty Prime Vista PRO (which has a hefty price tag of about $5,000.) The additional equipment that exists ranges from extensions to "turbo" rotating nozzles and specialized soaps for tackling different types of surfaces and materials. Be wary though, as you'll likely have to procure these things several times as you go through upgrades.

Along with that, the game sets up interactions with customers both enjoyably and realistically. You will encounter every archetype of human; from suspected criminals, obnoxious politicians, haunting victims, and just everyday people. They're all able to contact you throughout the day with text prompts and job descriptions, and it always feels very natural. Some of my favorite moments had to do with customer shenanigans and the uncovering of evidence as you progress through each assignment. This game is not just any menial working simulator, and you can discover so many hidden stories just from doing as you're told. This is not too dissimilar from real life either, who knows how many unsettling and extreme things have been revealed by actual clean-up companies, especially those that are made to sign non-disclosure agreements? Anyways, these experiences never really go into territory that might be considered too dark and are usually light-hearted, comedic, and heart-warming.

Even though the game is still currently in what I assume is very early access, there is an abundance of content to relish. Not only everything previously mentioned, but also just the sheer amount of maps and objects you're able to clean. You'll go through all manners of things, but buildings and cars will be some of your main targets. I'd say that the healthy and inventive variety of normal and odd commissions really makes the game; giving you options that range from space rovers (in special mode), haunted houses, carnival carousels, subterranean drills, and then just the ordinary day-to-day motorcycles and vans. There are also multiple game modes, such as career mode (which is just the main story, even though it's not much of a narrative experience), challenge mode (the one that evolved into somewhat of a competitive scene), and free play, which is just for your favorite jobs. You can even invite friends to co-op with!

The actual experience itself is obviously very pleasing to watch, and seeing dirt, or mud, or generally dislikable substances cluster up into corners and other hard-to-reach spaces makes it that much more true to life. The only complaints or suggestions I would really have is that sometimes the remaining dirt after nearly finishing a job is hard to locate or occasionally glitches and will say it's still not clean after washing it several times from all directions. Also, the soap doesn't have a long enough lifespan or often enough restocking. I do appreciate the mechanic that auto finishes parts if it knows I cannot possibly reach them, plus the percentages and highlighting with the tab key, though. I also think the live stream footage afterward is fun to watch. I'd suggest maybe adding a day and night cycle or light source for scouring darker places, too. Overall, it seems like the game's development process is going brilliantly, and I'm excited to see what's to come.