TL:DR awesome - 88/100 (on a scale where zero is an option). Hypnotic little time wasting puzzle/management game. Don't be surprised to check the time and find an hour passed when you decided to play one game - oh - go on then - just one more. Starts simply enough but descends into madness as more and more stations spawn. One comment though: a map can be highly RNG dependent, as the stations spawn randomly as do the choice of another locomotive/carriage/tunnel etc each Sunday. Also if you zone out or miss a station overfilling and used the restart button, the map restarts, yes, but the stations aren't the same placement as the last try. Dollar an hour entertainment so far. Probably get to 50 cents before I've had my fill.
Gorgeous with wonderful sound track, loveable player character than moves with such grace and flow... But the game doesn't - have flow I mean. What is meant by 'flow?' You would have heard about the difficulty spikes? Well - that breaks the flow. Instead of being a gradual increase of difficulty using peaks unlocked and skills learnt, Ori has spikes that take me right out of the game. If you are into platformers or practicing the same section over and over and etc then congratualtions you masochist, welcome home. However for $5 it is still recommended as you will get a few hours play that is quite nice. Until the Ginso tree.
Played for quite a while - then retried after full release. Nice atmosphere. Nice robots. Nice rain. Nice desolate heath. Enjoyed my time with it, just the longer that one spends in the world the emptier is seems. It's a cycle of seek, sneak, return, repeat. Needs more - something - to full it out even if it's only hide-aways to store stuff or stay until the right time of day to seek and sneak. Maybe a neutral NPCs or two with back stories? Got on special and had a fun few hours before the meh set in.
Usually I'm not one for point and click adventures but there are always exceptions... The cartoon style is nice and bold and clear. The characters are endearing, though I do wonder how a crocodile dad had a cat(?) son - but there is no time for that now. The voicing with one exception is good - and that exception may be a place holder so... It is humourous yet the story - which is engaging - seems to be moving toward dark places. Most of the puzzles seem logical, and the ones that were more escoteric I managed to brute force. The old-school 'street-fighter' combat seems ok - functional and not jarringly out-of-place or change-of-pace. Fours stars because I don't usually do point and click nor street-fighter-esk remember the button combos - even if it is only two buttons - hey I'm getting old! I will put it on my wishlist and if it's not too much over AUD$20 will pick it up at release - which coming for a tight-wad is high praise indeed.
While the world is wonderfully rendered, the protagionist, her movements and the voice acting are stella and the glimpse into what it is to have psychosis inspired, the rest of the game falls flat for me. Having been pensioned for OCD I can only imagine that the short repetitive game-play loop of puzzle, walk, fight in a small arena over and over again is trying to capture how fatiguing mental illness can be: if so they successed beyond their wildest dreams. Engagment is all. I neither like nor dislike linear games as a rule - it is a good way to focus a story, and to focus resources if a small studio. The problem is that I would start to get into a flow then another element - fight - walk - puzzle - exposition - felt like it was pulling me out of the experience when it occured. I feel the game would have gained much if there were other elements such as sneaking (around enemies - but are the there?) and puzzle elements involving working out what is real and what isn't, which (though psychosis doesn't necessarily involve hallucinations) is an element I felt the game was trying to convey. A more holistic experience of life with psychosis as it were. As mileage may vary I suggest getting it on sale
I enjoyed Plague Tales and would recommend especial if on sale - but I'm a tight-wad and would hardly buy any game full price. Yes - it is linear. However it is a small studio and it allows them to put all their resources into the areas where the player is. Yes - it isn't a quillgillion hours long (my complete play time 16 hours) . Personally I'm over bloated open worlds with loads of busy but meaningless work, and enjoyed the focus of the game. The sound design and visuals are great, as is the animation. The voice acting both of major and minor NPCs and the protagionists is excellent. The rats are handled really well, the way they swarm and run. Ocassionally they get caught on handrails and form a 'rat-pole' but meh. The protagionists are sympathetic, having relatable motives and are well draw and realised. Perhaps they could be a little more deeper/well-rounded (as too the main antagionist) for example via snipets of over-heard conversation but that is a niggle. The autosaves are plentiful and in good places. You can't back-track often so make sure to fully explore an area before moving on. Also there seems to be only a single save (though there are three save slots... ???) - so pray that it doesn't corrupt. All the areas seem to have resources plentiful enough so that if you haven't been looting your brains out you should still be about to complete the area. If you are only into Dark Souls-esk challange or only game mechanics rather than story, maybe this won't be your thing. All in all I enjoyed my time with this game. High 80s out of 100
The long and the short is that its a lot of fun. Not infrequently I die and don't know it, or am not sure what killed me because of all the 'splosion and pixel gore - and you know what - I don't care because.... it's just great fun. The player unlocks 80s and 90s action heros with terrible punning names (like Robobro - ugh) at a fairly brisk rate. These characters are more or less powerful, with some of the less powerful ones being more or less useless, and the player is randomly allocated one when they die/restart. The levels are fairly short, some few minutes in length. From the word go it is fenetic and explodie. Most the minions die in one shot though there are a few that take more. After clearing a few levels there are bosses at the level's end which tests how well you have learnt to throw your face at stuff. On dying the character respawns immediately at checkpoints, or if you have killed all your lives a quick 3 - 2 - 1 at the level's start and off you go again. Great game to play for 15-20 minutes then do something else. Haven't completed the game as removed a drive from the 'puter so the save was lost, but will happily go through the levels again. 4 1/2 out of 5
Never played connect 3 before. It has easy-med-hard settings. Only four saves. You play as an inapt guy on the make that a "love fairy" takes under her wing (oh ha ha see what I did there - bloody genius). You can play as a girl but the neither dialogue nor characters change (I half expected for there to be guys to chat up). The characters have each their own unique character ranging from sweet and retiring to 'go-girl!' The fairy is great. The bedroom scene captures fumbling with bra-strap hooks really well. I can't help feeling a little sleazy while playing but the humour and strong characters make up for it. There's something about being told 'you're good' when you match 4 in-a-role that never gets old.
Title says it all. Its for that puerile naughty little child inside you that enjoys pulling legs of bugs and thinks fart jokes are the best. Leave brain at door.
Enjoyed my time with it; the characters are great with good characterisation, humour and ethos. Progression can be a bit random as you aren't directed from point A to B then C, rather its up to you to find your way, which is good, but there are some areas that you get locked in (Mages Tower I think) that once you enter you are there until you succeed, and if you are under stat - and haven't thrown down a save before entering - will give you a nose bleed as you bang you head against a wall, or lose a lot of progress. The combat is functional, but as I've not played other isometric party games I can't comment much, other than the 'tactics' option of setting your characters behaviour is meh. Easier to hammer the pause and play each character during combat. I only played what felt like 2/3s(?) of the game and on a sudden had enough in Deep Roads (I call it the "Open World Blues" - oh another quest - and more combat and another and more and oh god kill me now). This is a very subjective thing but these days I prefer mid-sized game that doesn't overstay its welcome rather than an hundred hour great value game. Overall I'd recommend it. Great game to sit down occasionally and chill for a bit.
