Recent reviews by mark | dj.

Seriously, where the hell is the back button? Ruins an otherwise very enjoyable game, navigating the menus is just an absolute nightmare.

Bare bones PC port but people somehow don’t mind if it’s from FromSoftware *shrugs*

Where is the unlocked framerate (patch/mod excluded) and ultrawidescreen support? Plus, microstutter fix?

Meh. What a letdown.

Beautiful game graphically but the open world is kind of empty and 'filled' with repetitive events and useless clothing/outfit collectibles. I really looked forward to this game, but after a few hours I started to get really bored. What a shame.

An addicting game where progress is somehow locked and killed by unbalanced tactics/heroes, pay-to-win mechanics and hackers and bots. A shame really because the art is legitimately pretty good and the game has that one more round/one more chest kind of loop that I currently enjoy. But not for long if they don’t fix things quickly.

It's a cute game with a lot of personality and heart, but there are some things that make it far from enjoyable. To me, at least. First of all, there are constant loading screens. These take 1-2 seconds, sometimes a little longer, but it really takes the flow out of the game. The interface is a little cluttered, cumbersome and weirdly designed. Not always, though, in the shop and brewing station the interface works just fine. And then there's the fact you can't skip through text, or at least speed it up. It's a slow game. I've been playing for about one hour now and these little issues really take me out of the game; they're quite annoying and frustrating. To be fair, I'm normally not one to have issues with these choices, but in a slow game like this they become very noticeable. Do with it what you will, but for now Potion Craft definitely is the better and more fun potions game to play.

+ Story is quite good
+ Collecting items and graffiti is fun
+ Amazing artstyle
+ Music is pretty good, but not great

+/- City is empty activity-wise, but still a bit of fun to explore, although limited
+/- Upgrade system and home base don't really add anything to the game
+/- It's basically just boss fights

- Camera is terrible during the corridor fights
- Boss fights aren't any fun and often poorly telegraphed, partly thanks to the annoying camera
- Enemy behavior is also hard to read sometimes
- Controls feel unresponsive/laggy during combos

Would I recommend it? No. It has some fun ideas, but these are mostly poorly implemented and let's face it, I can name 10 different other music/rhythm games that are better and are actually fun. Still worth a shot if you have nothing else to play.

Drug addiction: the game.

Forgive Me Father is a first person shooter in the same vein as Doom or Quake, but a little more fleshed out, plus it has an incredible artstyle.

Since we’re discussing an Early Access game here some things might be changed or added into the future, or even removed. So please keep in mind that this review might not be up-to-date by the time version 1.0 releases, hopefully in 2022.
When you start the game you are quickly dropped into your first level. I wasn’t sure if this was maybe still some sort of tutorial at first, but it quickly became clear that this was the game’s actual first level. So you pick up your first gun, a pistol, and get on your way through the dimly lit mansion. A few minutes into the game you’ll come into contact with your first enemy and once you get over how great the art looks you might even want to (read: have to) shoot him. This enemy in particular only deals melee damage so he’s easy to take down. Enemies have a health bar, but most of the times a (few) headshot(s) will suffice to take them down. Or explosive red barrels to take down more at the same time. Later on more enemies will arrive - and sometimes they will spawn – that will also shoot (multiple) projectiles and do area-of-effect damage, making it a bit harder. The more difficult parts, however, are the parts where enemies suddenly spawn or come at you in bigger numbers. On occasion it gets a little overwhelming and once you get cornered it’s hard to get out of the situation. It either means you might get away with little health (unless you know beforehand what you’re running into) or you’ll die, in which case you have to restart from the latest checkpoint. Fortunately, since this is a game similar to Quake and Doom there are also health pick-ups that can be run into in order to heal up. Later on you’ll acquire a skill that heals you depending on how much Madness you have obtained. Madness is obtained by killing enemies and drinking liquor and the more Madness you have the more damage you will inflict, but it will also make your screen black and white which means things can still get hard to see. I’m personally not a fan of this effect as it makes the game even harder where in reality it’s supposed to make you more powerful and the game more easy (I’d say, right?). These effects cancel each other out this way.
Killing enemies will also reward you with skill points. Currently there are four skills to choose from; the others that are there are acquired by going through the story. Most of these skills are related to your set of weapons and skills, and there’s also a skill that lets you earn more experience. More will be added later on during the Early Access period and for now these skills are enough, even if they’re a little plain and unimaginative.
Besides health there’s naturally also ammo to find, as well as armor and colored keys to unlock same colored doors. Story pieces can also be found scattered throughout the level and these are very easily marked with the word ‘Story’ (hence my confusion at the beginning of the game where you’re just dropped into the level; I thought Story would begin a level, or at least the story). Anyway, a nice piece of art will then show on screen that tells you more about the (back)story.
In your first level you’ll also acquire a lantern that will play an important part during some segments. If it’s dark (because it *is* dark, but also because of the shade) you can take out your lantern to light the way, but this also means you won’t be able to use your weapons. It’s either one of the two. So you have to light the way to see where the enemy is then quickly switch to your gun (by that time you’ll also have acquired a shotgun) and aim at where they’re still hopefully located. It’s a fun twist, that adds a bit of tension to the situation, especially if your health is running low.
In the levels you can also find secrets. These are usually fun to find (either by accident of by actively searching for them). Once you’ve finished a level, which can take anywhere between a few minutes to up around 10-15 minutes maybe, you’ll get a ‘percentage complete’ score to see what you might have missed or how you can do things differently the next time. The score is based on story pieces found, red barrels blown up, secrets found, kills made and time, although I think the latter doesn’t influence the score in any way.
The current set of levels will take you through the mansion, a backyard and through a church/chapel area, among other locations. Currently there are 12 levels and more will be added later (25 in total).
As I already mentioned more skills, more weapons, more bosses (yes, there are boss fights), and more enemies will also be added later on (and there are already more than what I just described). It’s just been released last week so things are still early days.

Visually this game is great. It has an amazing artstyle, but some of the animations are a bit lacking. Hopefully more frames will be added to them, because right now they move a little – just a tiny bit - awkwardly, but I guess that’s also done on purpose. Besides being very dark, the game also has some colorful elements. Everything looks nice and sharp, with detailed textures. The environments, especially outdoors, also look terrific. Nothing with this game visually, let’s hope they can add to it and make the necessary improvements.
Sound-wise the guns sound realistically, but maybe not as clean as they should. The music, when it kicks in, is not my cup of tea, but fans of the heavier music styles out there will enjoy it… probably.

Forgive Me Father is a visually stunning game that fans of Quake, Doom and similar-styled games will definitely like. It’s fast paced, has some nice secrets and references and so far also has enough variety in its enemies, locations and weapons. More will be added, and has to be added, later in order to keep things interesting, but for now you can get several hours of gameplay out of it for sure. It’s a cool game, with a fun, but still kind of basic, gameplay loop; just don’t expect anything revolutionary.

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Secrets Of Soil is an informative game about, you guessed it, soil. It’s roughly 30 minutes long and has something to tell about how we use soil currently and how we have to change our ways in order to (partially) stop climate change and save the planet. It’s an informative, interactive story, divided into 17 chapters, with each one taking just a few minutes.

I wouldn’t call this a game in any way, however. Yes, there’s gameplay, but it’s very limited and what you do is you basically explore the level while listening to the narrator and once in a while you may press a button to do something interactive and/or press x to continue to the next chapter. There’s nothing more to do than that. I would even go as far as to call this some sort of interactive screensaver; it really is a non-game.

But, and there’s a big but here, that’s just not what this experience is about. It’s a confronting piece about how we’re actually destroying our current soil by doing unnatural things do it because we think we’re actually doing the right thing with it and to it. And at the same time this apparently affects our climate as well. It’s a piece that makes you think, and it’s actually something that has been researched carefully. But - and again a big but here – I don’t think gaming is the right platform for it as most of us gamers aren’t really (actively) concerned with the climate and our planet in general (of course there are exceptions). However, if this would’ve been an addition to, let’s say, a tv episode about it, or a commercial this would’ve made more sense for sure. Still, there are some written articles that can be found at the link at the bottom of this review so, please, if you want to know more make sure to check it out.

Graphically it’s kind of pretty, but also weird. It’s some sort of visual depiction of oil, microbes, nutrients and a whole lot of other things, but naturally these are not made in a photorealistic kind of way. Instead it has been created so look like an art project of sorts, with lots of different (animated) colors and lots of particles and effects. So many in fact that it will bring even the most modern PCs to its knees. Okay, it might not be *that* bad, but framedrops can be frequent and they can be extreme, going from having frames somewhere in the hundred going into as low as somewhere in the twenties. The drops are huge. Fortunately, they don’t impact the little gameplay there is, but it is distracting.
The narration is done professionally and is calmly told in a meaningful, serious and comprehensive manner.

Since this is more of a non-game I don’t suggest this as something you should play, but if you like experiences or you care about our world then it’s never a bad thing to start this up. Surely you have 30 minutes to spare to listen to something that might affect our futures? If you want more information please visit Henry Driver’s page[henrydriverartist.com], who is also the creator of this experience.

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If you've ever played the game Guacamelee then you already know how the battle system of The Legend Of Tianding works, a Taiwanese beat 'em up with comic book-like visuals.

The first thing that impresses are these visuals. They immediately jump out with their Ben-Day dots pattern. The second thing that most people will notice is the Robin Hood-like story, that becomes even more apparent when that same character is also referenced by name several times during the story.
And I think we all know that story: Robin Hood takes money from the rich and gives it to the poor. The Taiwanese counterpart Tianding does things the same way really, just in a different setting.

The gameplay is entirely in 2D (shown in 2.5D) and even though it's a beat 'em up the hub area (for lack of a better name) can be moved through freely. In this hub area you can decide to give money to the poor which earns you a collectible (or buff, really, but I'll get into that later) and to help others in need (fetch quests where you have to collect an item or items). There's also some light entertainment in the form of music (one of the longest songs in history, but it has its charm) as well as a card game that on first sight looks similar to UNO, but in reality is a lot harder. All the times that I have played it I lost big money. To the same guy. Frustrating. But it's there if you want a few minutes of relaxation, which is almost always a great addition of course. Fast travel points can also be unlocked later on to move around more swiftly.
The levels themselves are well made with the same amounts of detail and sometimes they have multiple paths to take. These different paths can contain collectibles and enemies and always result in either going back to the previous path afterwards or going forward and still coming back to that same path. This is *not* a metroidvania in case you're confused. Enemies will also either be standing around or they will spawn when entering areas where chests are already located. Defeat all of those enemies and that same chest will open where you'll receive money and a collectible. There are also secret areas to find, some are visible and some have to be found, that contain collectibles and money as well. Later on you'll receive sidequests that have you revisit the already visited areas, but, like most sidequests, these feel like filler and I haven't had the urge to do these myself, apart from a few that I had collected by coincidence. Also, because the levels aren’t really interesting, even though they’re well made.
The combat on the other hand is great. You can clearly tell Guacamelee was an inspiration as it uses the same kinds of moves and traversal mechanics. You can juggle enemies to keep your combo going, punching and kicking them as you see fit. At other times you’ll have to use these same mechanics to cross an otherwise impossibly to reach platform. It all works perfectly, honestly. And I haven’t even mentioned the disarm ability: hit an enemy enough times and you can execute a move that disarms them and will give you the ability to use it. So you could steal a rocket launcher and really dish out some damage. And usually there are multiple enemies (sometimes purple ones with a lot more health and power) with different kinds of weapons, so you could just take a personal favorite, or even use them all in the end. Cool stuff.
There are also several boss fights that can be remarkably hard. I’ve died plenty of times fighting them. They have a lot of patterns and skills they use so it’s mostly a matter of remembering what to do and when, but still, it can be discouraging. And every time you die (up to five times I think) you’ll also lose a percentage of your money. Talk about discouragement (or encouragement, to just pay attention and take them down if you want a different take on it).
One thing I disliked, though, was grabbing on to hanging stuff (like rings) and then throwing yourself into a specific direction. Now that of itself wasn’t the problem, but if you didn’t grab it properly and/or chose the wrong direction then the ring would disappear for a second or two and then you’d be pretty much helpless. Why does it disappear? It makes no sense. Fortunately the game is quite forgiving as far as invincibility goes once you get hit, but still: a weird choice.
Now, as for the collectibles. The game calls these collectibles, but they’re really passive buffs. That means each collectible that you can pick-up adds up to a total of something. For example, you could get a buff that adds 0.5 seconds to a special skill, or one that could add 20% of health. These are well thought of and it’s a fantastic system. I wonder why no one else has come up with this before. It makes hunting for collectibles not such a chore and it also makes your character much stronger if you wish. And if you don’t want to do any of that and make the game a little harder that would be fine too. In total there are 145 collectibles to be found. Very nice.
Besides collectibles there are also talismans to find and equip. You have three slots and each talisman has a specific amount that will be used up when it’s equipped. So that means you could take three talismans of one point, or a stronger, more useful one of three points, but you could also mix it up with one of two points and another one of one.
Did I have any other issues with the game? Not really. Aside from the ring stuff and harder-than-usual boss fights mentioned before and a few typos this game is pretty much great.
The game takes about four to five hours to complete, and this is with a few sidequests completed and over half of the collectibles found. So plenty of gameplay I’d say.

Graphically this game is gorgeous. Comic book-style animations and panels make the game really stand out. The models themselves are also made like a comic book character, with exaggerated-while-still-being-subtle details. The game is very colorful and has plenty of details in its environments.
The voice acting, while Taiwanese, sounds great, even if it’s only for the narrator and the longest song in history (just kidding). Now, I’m not Taiwanese so I can’t judge if the lines are delivered properly, but at least it sounds like they are. The music definitely sounds Taiwanese, or Asian in any case, that I can’t quite explain. But if you hear it I think you would agree.

The Legend Of Tianding is a solid beat ‘em up with perfect comic book-style visuals. The way the game has you find stackable buffs by finding collectibles is a great way to keep it interesting and a great way to let everyone decide for themselves how they want to spend their time with it (do you want to keep the game challenging, or make your character stronger, or a bit of both?). The platforming and combat are excellent, too, similar to Guacamelee’s. The short length might be a turn off for some, but I found the length to be perfectly fine for the average gamer. Plus, you can easily put some more hours into it if you would really want to. If you like beat ‘em ups then this is an easy recommendation for sure.

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