Game Reviews

Game Title: Wildmender Released: September 28, 2023 Grade: C   Mechanics Expectations: This game was oddly paired with Paleo Pines inside a Cozy Exploration bundle on Steam. I found this rather curious as it is advertised as a survival game. The idea of restoring the desert to a lush garden did appeal to me. Unfortunately, the design of the game was nowhere near what I thought it was going to be. Think of it more like a conceptual playground that randomly disperses elements into a world to explore. There is no cohesion or story outside the main quests that unlock plot devices for progression. The interactable ghosts and shrines will only leave you with a brief narrative or poem before sending you on your way. The scrolls you find aren't legible and are only used as a means to provide you unlockable points.  Survival: If story isn't really the focal point, then the most important part of the game has to be making sure you don't die. There are three things to mainly have...

Game Title: Immortal Life Released: January 17, 2024 Game Length: N/A Grade: C   Culture Shock Game Decision: Every now and then, my game list tends to pick up a few unorthodox games out of the country. Their style, controls, and gameplay all tend to be different than what you might have grown accustomed to. One game that caught my eye was River Town Factory . The game takes the standard isekai trope and pulls a designer from the modern world back in time. On the surface, there are a lot of the standard systems like a museum to turn in equipment, stores to buy things, and people to build relationships with for benefits. However, everything quickly turns into an efficiency game like any other ordinary factory game you might have played before. Prelude: That's when I came across Immortal Life and thought there was enough substance to give it a try. There is a school high in the mountains that teaches an elite group of "cultivators" that live as "Immortals" to...

Game Title: Ara Fell Released: June 2, 2016 Game Length: 24 hours Grade: B- Setting   Backdrop: I'm going back a long ways with this one. Ara Fell was a game released during the RPG Maker era. The game might appear rough with its chibi-style sprites and dialogue boxes, but the game has a lot to offer. There is a bit of atmosphere built into the game with critters moving around and the type of music playing. The characters are decently designed and there's a bit of personality that shines through. The protagonist will react similarly to the player when looting convenient chests, using various teleportation techniques, or finding spontaneous encounters.   Enhanced: The enhanced version introduces a bunch of new features and music, including a fast battle animation option that definitely hastens the repetitive sequences of the game. Although they added an auto-save feature, it failed me the one time I put trust in it. When there were two bosses and I fell after the second one...

Game Title: Bullets Per Minute Released: September 15, 2020 Game Length: 2 Hours Grade: C- Expectations: Alright. Here's a game that I already have a bad feeling going in. I'm not sure what it is about the style of the game, but it reminds me a lot of Doom and Overwatch . Now I'm not generally a fast person, but Borderlands was actually a nice game with its health recovery system and variety of guns. What does this game have? For starters, there is a lot of red and small rooms filled with monsters. Alright, let's give it a shot (literally). Reality: There is a good chance it's just me, but everything about this game is wrong . I probably broke a record somewhere with my first death being under 30 seconds. Running into a monster without having a clue what button reloads your gun or a way to melee your enemies made it very difficult since there is no tutorial . The bright red colors made it very difficult to see anything and the movement sensitivity w...

Game Title: Spiritfarer Released: August 18, 2020 Game Length: 23 Hours Grade: C Expectations: One of my favorite reviewers decided to pick this obscure title out of the blue one day and become "emotionally engaged" with what it had to offer. I figured a $30 game with more than 20 hours with colorful and wholesome characters would be a perfect game to try out. First Impressions: Going into the game was a breath of fresh air. That Charon fellow that took souls on a boat ride is retiring and assigned you of all people to take the job. You can practically do whatever you want since you do not sleep and do not tire-out. You always have a smile on your face as your optimistic attitude takes you across tiny little isles like Legend of Zelda: Windwaker to pick-up passengers of all kinds. The first three you come across personally know you and are very encouraging to your cause. Not long does it take you to learn all the mini-games they have to offer: fishing, weav...

Game Title: Gone Home Released: August 15, 2013 Game Length: 2 Hours Grade: F Expectations: Look at that date! This is definitely an old one. Why did the Epic Games Store offer this game to be free during the week of April 2nd is beyond me. So considering the release date, the fact that it was given out for free, the two-hour time stamp, the raving reviews, and the poorly-designed graphics in the trailer , I am going to say that there is some huge scary twist that happens that blows this game out of the water. So I'm going to carefully play this game with the lights on and hope nothing bad happens. Reality: So... I just spent two hours learning about a couple of lesbians who tried to deal with their secret affair behind everybody's back. I'm going to be honest here and state for the record that I did not finish the game. I got so exhausted hearing about the life of these two rebellious teenagers that I was actually hoping a monster would come kill...

Game Title: Close to the Sun Released: May 5, 2020 Game Length: 4 Hours Grade: D Expectations: When the Epic Games Store first came out in December 6, 2018, I thought it was going to be another exclusive gaming platform like Uplay or Origins . I never thought companies would flock to it for a reduced cut in production sales, neither did I see them release a game for free each week. They had a lot of smaller games produced like Observation or Outer Wilds that would stay with them exclusively for a year and then pounce on over to Steam for the rest of the crowd. So when Close to the Sun came out for $20 and then came out for free on April 9th - 16th, 2020, right at the end of their exclusive contract, I knew the game was probably going to be problematic. Combine that with reviews and that it is in the horror genre, I probably won't be able to play the whole game. I've never even heard of the company Storm in a Tea Cup . I guess the only games they really produced ...

Game Title: Void B Released: May 28, 2019 Game Length: 8 Hours Grade: C Expectations: I didn't see this one recommended too much in the long lists of video games to try out, but I figured from the trailer that it looked interesting enough to give it a shot. From the various ships to explore to the ways you can manipulate the systems, I felt like the game was trying to replicate FTL within a Doom interface. The character animations are limited to a flat cardboard, but the artwork behind the landscape might just pull off the style. Then again, it might be a bit too terrifying for me to play for too long with how monstrous the inhabitants are and how dark the ships can get without power. I hope the story is interesting enough to keep me occupied. Reality: The game got so repetitive that I had to stop playing after 3 hours . There is a wide-range of ships to explore, but you are performing the same actions in every one of them. Your goal is to find a number of thin...

Game Title: Spelunky Released: August 8, 2013 Game Length: 16 Hours Grade: C Expectations: This is a very old game that I never got around to playing. After seeing its sequel come across my news feed, I figured I would finally give it a chance. No doubt this game has run for a couple dollars in quite a few bundles in the past. The thing I didn't know was that this "high-definition" version of the game wasn't the first one to come out. Its creator actually released the freeware version way back in 2008. The file size was 9.5MB! Clearly he updated the game in its 2013 release with better graphics, new items, and a 4-player multiplayer mode. I have this weird feeling that it is going to take me awhile to discover all the hidden mechanics tucked away in the game's engine. Reality: I discovered in this game that dying is part of the fun . What killed you is just as important as how far you will go. The list of possible ways to die is incredi...

Game Title: Baba Is You Released: March 13, 2019 Game Length: 20 Hours Grade: B Expectations: For starters, the whole game is 56MB. Do you know how tiny that is? Judging by the graphics, I'd say that this game is nothing but puzzles. The only thing I don't know is how many stages there are and how difficult it gets. Whatever it is, it is most definitely not worth $15 . The only way this would be mildly worth it is if you bought a bundle with it inside, like the giant Fight For Racial Justice Humble Bundle . Reality: There are 226 Spores to collect. Seeing that each spore is obtained from beating a level, my measly 76 Spores didn't even come close. I did very well in the early stages by completing a good 40 levels in 4 hours. Then as I opened up more stages, they got way harder. Theoretically, the levels can be completed in a minute. But as I got around the 12-hour marker, I realized I had just spent one hour trying to complete any of ten different a...

So you want to get into Baldur's Gate. I'm starting to realize that I'm just not "into" these type of games. With my failed attempt at Pathfinder: Kingmaker and semi-failure in Disco Elysium , I figured the "best RPG of all time" would at least do it for me. But like many others , I just don't get it. Maybe it has to do with the fact that when they say "Baldur's Gate is awesome" they really mean that Baldur's Gate II is awesome. With the developers of Divinity: Original Sin working on Baldur's Gate 3 , I figured now would be a good time to try and play the saga. Besides, between Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition 2.5 and mods , you would think a game like this would be nice to play. Enhanced Edition: It is just too bad that the so-called "Enhanced Edition" doesn't really contribute much over the original game. Even now people continue to argue whether it is worth the upgrade. The graphics aren't tha...

Pathfinder: Kingmaker is a another game that popped up when browsing CRPGs. After playing Pillars of Eternity and Divinity: Original Sin , I figured this game could be really fun to play. It has a lot of decent reviews on Steam and there's something about ruling over a kingdom. How hard could it be? Installation: For a year they had time to iron out the bugs and I guess people are still having issues with them. The patches can be a nightmare as they seem to modify various files at once. I read that installing any patches requires the entire installation of the game. Or if you are trying to patch from v1.0 to v2.0 you pretty much have to download the whole game over again. Trust me, you will want to download those patches as they fix "numerous bugs" too long to list appropriately in any patch list. This isn't fun when the game is 45GB . Although the "Enhanced Edition" includes all three DLC packages, none of them seemed appealing to me. The firs...

Before the SciFi channel decided to try and be cool by changing its name to SyFy in 2009, there was a series of interesting shows that would air during its broadcast. You had a lot of weird shows like Stargate, Sliders, Andromeda, and Battlestar Galactica. Farscape was also present during the years of 1999 and 2003. I had hoped it would have been a show that I would like. I was wrong. So wrong. Character Growth: Farscape intrigued me at first. Everyone says that the character development in the first season was the best. I would have to agree. There were some very interesting concepts and plot reveals that kept me wanting to see more. Everything you ever needed to be explained was in the first episode which is hard for me to say when you had awful first episodes like in the Burn Notice or Stargate SG-1 premieres. The show took on an alien perspective of everyday moral issues like vulnerability, torture, drugs, facing the unknown, and having a superiority complex. A ...

There have been many developers who tried to emulate the vast success of FTL: Faster Than Light . That random indie space adventure was cheap, rogue-like, and fun. Crying Suns is just one of those games that was released here recently in September 18, 2019. In fact, you can go try the demo yourself. After being burned from games like Out There , I didn't have high hopes for this game considering it was a Kickstarter Project that raised just under $100,000. So how is the game now that they raised the price from $15 to $25? The Good: Crying Suns decides to weave a story in 6 different chapters. Each chapter has 3 sectors and each sector takes roughly about an hour each. The way they structured the story from the perspective of a captain watching a monitor screen (or elsewhere for that matter) is pretty brilliant. I actually found myself being invested in the story like I was with Urquan Masters . For the first 3 hours in the first chapter of the game, I enjoyed it immense...

I feel like the game is a hodgepodge of the "fun" of every game you ever played. In this sense, the game is a big letdown as a Final Fantasy game. In fact, I would have to say it is the game least to "Final Fantasy". Let me explain. How is it like Final Fantasy? The game sets you up with 4 people in your party. You explore the world filled with beasts of unknown origin and meet characters trying to live out their lives. Cities get torn apart as people looking for power tear down the governments trying to hold for peace. You are able to ride chocobos to get across the area faster and use elements to exploit the enemies' weaknesses. This all sounds like Final Fantasy! In reality, the game sets you up with 4 male characters on their way to a wedding in their sports car. Yes, sports car. The wedding was only a smokescreen so the empire could come in and take out the king. So now instead of having a fun trip, you now have to face the pressure of becomi...

About 1 year after the first Fallout game released, the second one in the series came out in 1988. Honestly, there was barely any difference between the two games. The majority of the artwork seemed recycled and the mechanics remained true to the original. However, there was an extreme overhaul to all the problems of the first game. The Wiki touches on a lot of the changes between the two games but the ones I noticed were: (1) Every statistic, skill, perk was beneficial in some form or fashion. Example: Charisma adds more party members and Awareness lets you see the enemy's hit points. (2) The first 10 hours force you to learn all of the mechanics. This tests the durability of your preset character build as well as teach you how to manipulate combat conditions. (3) Your amount is shown in barter windows, speech is cleaned up when conversing with your companions or the public, you can choose the combat options for your companions (4) You can push people out of the ...

There is a lot to Sunless Sea but I eventually got to the point where booting up the game just doesn't cut it anymore. I decided to move on to trying and couple of other games. I wasn't happy. Papers, Please is a game where you stamp people's passports before they enter into the country. That's it. I understand that it is a game and there are a lot of things that can happen each day but the job is just that - a job. I did not find enjoyment in checking every nook and cranny of everyone's papers for a mistake when there was a deadline. I don't like to be rushed. And that is the point of the game. They rush you and make you feel the dread of playing the game. If Spec Ops taught me anything: there is no choice, there is no reason to play. I played until I failed on the 4th day and that was it. I had no urge to keep playing. Everspace is another game that looked interesting. I really loved FTL and people recommended this game for its rogue-like appe...

I've heard many things about Nier Automata. How it is such a beautiful, complex game that deals with hard-posed philosophies around what it means to live when your existence is based on a lie... or something like that. I thought it would be an interesting concept if the game followed the same example as the Ghost in the Shell series. But I had some major... major problems with the game. One reviewer that I actually enjoy showing off an honest opinion is Zero Punctuation. And one year came long ago back in March 2017 when he did a piece on Nier Automata . The only thing I really remembered from that episode was something to the effect of You need to play the game over a few times. That didn't really make sense to me. Wouldn't that be awful? Well, everyone seemed to like the game. But you may recall that a lot of people also liked the movie Gravity . So I booted up the game and decided to take a crack at it - 4 hours to be precise. Then I reached the point of my ...

Ok. I might be cheating a little bit here. I have fond memories as a kid playing Final Fantasy 4 and Final Fantasy 6 on the SNES. I remember replaying them when I was in college through an emulator. The one thing I have yet to do is play the others. I have attempted the FF7 Demo but the graphics made me cringe. It reminded me why I didn't bother going back and replaying my "family's RV trip across the United States savior" Chrono Cross. Many people say Final Fantasy 8 is a disaster and I know of one guy personally who says Final Fantasy 9 is his favorite game of all time. But what about Final Fantasy 5 ? Well... let's just say I made an attempt. The fifth edition of the saga played around with the class trees. You take "jobs" and level them up. Then later in the game you can try different jobs to make unique hybrid systems. The story was interesting enough. They developed some sort of dual-world story between humans and monsters. But I didn...

Child of Light was released in 2014. It was one of those indie games that came out alongside (well, a little after) Dust: An Elysian Tail . I never got around to it because I didn't feel like enough people reviewed it. Then my brother bought it and told me to try it out. I was able to play it for some time but I had to stop due to technical issues. It had to be my dual-core. It caused me issues for Shadow of Mordor and Dragon Age as well. The game just didn't stop slugging along. I tried a lot of neat tricks that may or may not have helped the game move smoother. I modified my virtual memory to help with my 4GB of RAM. I tried disconnecting to the Internet incase Uplay was malfunctioning. I changed my Nvidia Control Panel to force running the GPU with the executable file. Even changing the game's resolution didn't seem to effect performance. I managed to Chapter 5 (about half-way) in under 10 hours . That's when I decided enough was enough. On the plus ...