This game is the answer to other farming sims having a sort of built-in anxiety. There's no time pressure. There's only the energy bar. "Night" is the last 10% of your bar. The only penalty for doing one last action is that you lose the first 25% of the next day's energy. This ultimately isn't much of a punishment. After a few days or a week of playing, you'll get a shiny watch that resets the entire bar for you. There's seasons and a calendar, but ultimately there's no penalty for just passing out in the forest every night for two years. The events repeat every single year, and there are no "have X relationship by X day" type requirements either. In other words, if you need a smooth drip of the good brain juice and even Stardew Valley seems like too much for you, just pull up this game. No idea what to play? Play this game while you decide on the night's vibes. It's THAT low pressure. And hey, worst case scenario, it's on GOG. You can get it self-refunded if it doesn't pan out.
I spent a couple months with this nagging "I need to play a shooter" feeling. I own a handful of others, but this one scratched the itch. It runs on the aesthetic and general idea of old shooters, yeah, but with some design elements that make it more of a modern shooter. You can play on casual with no real penalties from death other than starting a stage over, or you can play on harder difficulties and have to make it through on limited lives. Only the hardest difficulty, according to the new game setup, has any changes other than the lives mechanic. I played on Casual, so keep that in mind for the rest of the review. If you need to quit before beating an episode, you can just quit anywhere in any stage. You'll start that one exact level over again when you get back. Like older shooters, you get back your health the same way you get back ammo - pick it up off the floor. Mana works the same way. You have two uses for mana starting off - a staff and a light spell - and these two uses are so useful you don't really need any others. The light spell doesn't technically use any mana, but if you're at 0, it won't work. The staff's a decent weapon with upgrades available to change out how it works, and the light spell becomes essential for finding secret areas and passages. Most of the options you have are like this - they remain useful even when other options become available. In actually playing it, it doesn't feel like the old Doom. It feels like they made their own sort of game, and borrowed the artistic style of the old ones. What used to be pushing graphical limitations has become a design choice. You can't save in the middle of a stage, because that would let you get around the lives system. On the other hand, the levels are so short, and quitting and coming back is so easy and loses you so little progress, you don't particularly need it. It saves on its own at every loading screen. And since Casual doesn't change damage or health, bosses will still floor you.
