Recent reviews by 98 Owls

This game is just like the manor it's about. Lots of cool components that only work together like 10% of the time. If it was just a puzzle/adventure game, it would've been fun. If it was just about assembling the house, that could've worked. The components just don't fit together, which is the exact same experience I got for like 20 days in a row trying to connect the boiler to the pump.
When you're allowed to do puzzles, they [mostly] work pretty well; When you're allowed to see the story, it's pretty good. But you're not allowed to do the puzzles or see the story. You'll get to do that, just spend 15 days of drafting over and over again, getting half of what you need.
Less saltily, my comments for the devs: 1) Fix your bugs. The tomb is broken, the boiler room will less you out but not back in if you depower the door, the kennel just doesn't work like 15% of the time. 2) Don't have inconsistencies in how things are represented [make the wooden barricade brick instead, considering the power sledge says brick walls and every single other use is a brick wall]. 3) Let shortcuts just be shortcuts. You don't have to put a card lock on the elevator. 4) Make work matter. Congrats, you solved the mirror room, isn't it cool that the middle button only inconveniences you?
I know there's more to this game, and I want to experience it, but for me, right now, I can't make myself throw another 20 days to get nothing done.

Game is definitely early access, the stories just kind of trail off for now, though obviously they'll be extended and wrapped up later. The chisel and upscaler mechanics are fun and engaging, though IMO the 'rotate' on the upscaler should probably be free instead of an upgrade. Devs seem to be receptive and take feedback in stride.
If you're on the fence after playing the demo, maybe give it a little time to bake, but for me it scratched that goblin itch.

I'm gonna be honest, there's just too much going on in this game. The characters on their own are fairly complex, and then more unlockables on top that. It's also really demoralizing to lose a fight and not understand why, or what actually happened to kill you, because it seemed like a random normal turn and then you exploded, including your spare heart. Maybe this game is just too smart for me.

I'll focus on this game, but touch in to compare with the others.
First off, the options menu is comically bad, it's all sliders-that-aren't-actually-sliders, and it's different if you pause inside of the game where it tells you the actual values. The level select menu is also confusingly bad, you can go forward/back either one or ten levels, that's it. This is important because you need a specific star count to unlock levels, so if you want to look for the ones you're missing, you have to click through all of them one at a time. Any kind of quick select would be appreciated.
Controls:
Game is mouse and spacebar only, and spacebar is optional.
Left click/right click to thumbs up/offensive gesture at your fans and haters respectively.
Spacebar to deploy helicopter-chute. [but didn't you say this was optional?, yeah, I'll get to that]
Directional controls are entirely look based, which feels pretty intuitive. Movement is surprisingly reactive and you can take corners you really wouldn't expect.
There is no restart option, you have to exit to menu and re-enter.
Gameplay:
The gameplay loop is simple, each level is a score attack to unlock up to 5 stars, levels have a star requirement to be unlocked. Each level you get dropped into the air above an obstacle course of abstract shapes, floating cityscapes, and emoji-cubes, gaining score from the risk of your moves.
Mechanically, this mostly comes down to 'hugs' and 'kisses'. Hugs are the continuous score you get from being near objects as you fall, they also boost your multiplier based on how close you were. Kisses are a one time score bump for the first time you get close to an object. You also get points from hitting score plates or making the correct hand gesture when passing a crowd, but these are more supplemental in most levels, or at least dependent on you also getting hug multipliers.
Each level after the first you have two hearts, the first time you slam into the top of something you'll be launched back up the level, the second time ends your run. [Which raises the question for me, why have two hearts instead of one?] Sometimes when you get launched up you'll be placed immediately above another object and take your second hit. As far as I can tell, ending your run losing your second life is no different to landing with your chute. There's no penalty for death or reward for landing in the designated area.
Level design/changes:
I only want to touch here on something that's unique to this game, the emoji-cubes. In the intro level the game explains that these are the optimal path to take, but that's not really it. Because the cubes are still objects you get hugs/kisses off of, they don't mark the way, they *set* the way. There's not room for finding your own path, because if you want the points to keep going you need to stick with the pack. I'm still not sure if this is an intentional subtle jab at artists and influencers riding trends, or the need of your character as an artist to get attention, or players only wanting the game thing over and over, or some way to give the required path personality?
Music:
The music is overall generally higher quality, I have no idea if it's licensed or original, there are no credits. The songs are now randomized with every run, which has it's ups and downs. Playing the same level isn't as repetitive, but levels also have less of an identity.
- There is also VA for the tutorial in the first level, they immediately get a number wrong.
Personality:
This is the final nail in the coffin for me, but also makes me wonder if people who hadn't played the previous ones would feel the same way. There's these hints of a personality, but that's all they are. This game is so inoffensive that the remnants from the previous games feel like sharp edges.
On remnants and sharp edges, the steam page feels like it was made for a different game closer to the originals. The two line plot is a summation of the earlier games that makes no appearance after the intro. The only incredible feature that's true is there's more than 0 levels, the spray paint doesn't even come back in this. And maybe this is me missing them or they're only in later levels, but I'm pretty sure there's no cars? Maybe I've been too focused on the cubes.
The change in game controls has disincentivized looking around, so while things are prettier you won't really be paying much attention to what's going by, but if you do focus out, you'll find more genetic backgrounds than the former multi-story in universe adverts. I don't think having these visual style changes is a major negative on its own, but it certainly impacts the overall bland feel of the game.
I set this down after about an hour and went and played some Aaa... For the Awesome! and honestly, I like it more. I'd rather have a janky game with some punk spirit and off kilter writing. I really hope I didn't put more thought into the meaning of the cubes than the devs did...

I wanted to wait to give my review until I finished the story, but I've been replaying the same section over and over trying to fix the issue of my community being permanently stuck idle standing on their beds. It's not even because of how much they contribute, it's just annoying.
This is gonna end up just like block'hood, a cool concept that doesn't deliver.

I'm not crying, you're crying.

I spent awhile trying to figure out what to say about this game, and I think it boils down to: Play Fallout 4 instead.
Seriously, Bethesda, you put so much effort into the wrong parts. I don't care if a game looks good if none of the characters are compelling and the game play is garbage. The story is less compelling than the son I forgot about to build settlements. And this game's settlements are somehow less compelling than the story.
It'd be one thing if the game was just under cooked, but there were clear design decisions to make the game worse. Why take away unlimited storage? Why make settlement connections impossible to use?
Oh, and for ♥♥♥♥♥ sake, don't have an entire quest around evicting someone from their own residence because the locals hate outsiders and then sell a house in the same district for cartoonishly little money, no requirements, no questions asked, no issues from the locals.
If you've read all this and still decide to play the game, make sure to bind an alternate key for jump, because it boost packs you forwards instead of up and it's the only reasonable way to navigate the vast swaths of nothingness on every. single. planet.

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As it exists now, this game is hollow. There are a decent number of pieces, but none of them play together.
EX: You research automated medical pods. That research unlocks the xenodetection research. Xenodetectors, unsurprisingly, can detect aliens, including someone is infected. Guess what, the autodocs can't treat any form of infection. Someone has aliens in 'em? You can wait for them to die or kill them yourself. Have someone with an alien literally stuck to their face? Same deal. And when I said any form of infection, I meant it. Have a space diarrhea epidemic? The autodocs can treat them for damage, but there's no way to reduce infection or spread.
EX2: There's a 'Terraform Controls' console. Guess what it doesn't do. If your answer was 'control terraforming' then ding ding ding you're a winner.
Seriously, I played like a 40 hour run of poking around the universe trying to find something interesting in the game, and there just wasn't. Give this like a year to bake, maybe it'll be ready then.

I'm gonna keep this short, this game is built on being cool. If you want a serious story or tactical gun play, this ain't it. If you want to play the coolest FPS you've ever played, and to feel cool playing it, this is the right game. Like Water 10/10 modifier.