Recent reviews by Korsiff

This game is the epitome of games that center around presenting a variety of viable playstyles and tools of play to fiddle with. If you love games that let you explore a wide variety of possibilities, then this one will surely be up your alley. Despite how limiting and arbitrary it may seem to have a game be based around a standard deck of poker playing cards, it's through the ability to modify this deck and the behavior of the cards therein that gives the game so much value. When you first start, you'll probably lose a few times through growing pains of learning what you can and can't get away with and then, as you learn more, you'll start to lose less but then find yourself in theory crafting territory where you've seen so many jokers and card modification possibilities that the wheels of curiosity start to turn. And so you start losing a bit more while hunting down wacky, wild build possibilities that only become wackier and wilder the more you play and unlock more jokers and deck types to play with.

Is there a "best" deck or build to play with? Probably. But if all you did was play to win, you'd miss out on the depth this game has to offer.

Being that this is an extremely discovery and experimentation centric game, the viable play time may be a bit limited. After all, there are only so many new things to be seen. But I assure you, the game is well worth the price of admission for the breadth of exploration you'll get to do.

As for the game's soundtrack, it's got one song only in four variations. Sounds miserable, right? And yet, in all the time I'd spent playing the game, I never got tired of it. It's somehow the perfect song for this type of game, especially in how it meshes with the game's vibes. Oh yeah, and the vibes in question are, as I've heard it described, "immaculate". lol. The game's presentation is abstract in a way that feels like it deliberately pulls you out of the idea that you're supposed to be someone in a particular place taking part in some kind of story. Instead, you've got this strange swirl of colors and music that work together to produce a feeling like the game is reveling in itself. As if to say, "there's nothing more than this and there doesn't need to be. You want to play a game with cards and we've got that. But it's going to be just a little different than you may be used to ;)."

For cons, I'd say that one song is probably a bit tedious for some folks. While I had no issue with it, I'm also only me. Thankfully, the song is present in the game's store page showcase so you get to preview it. lol.
Also, because the game is inherently chance-based, you will occasionally get screwed by RNG. Although, I think this is where perception and patience comes into play for the most part because while I didn't have trouble seeing my way through bad times, I had friends who were having much worse times with the game despite the paths seeming obvious to me. This is less a brag and more of a cautioning that if you don't see many paths at once, the game might not treat you well, at least until you've spent more time with it. It's a hard pitch to say "the game is good" and then to say "but only if you get good at it" because you're essentially telling people to spend money to be miserable. But even with that in mind, I think the game is still worth it. After a while, those friends who were struggling did get better at the game and were eventually able to bridge the gap of not knowing how to win to being good enough at winning consistently that they now want to theory-craft.

Overall, the game is really good. It certainly requires patience and thought but will reward both with a really good time. For a game that is entirely about its mechanics, I do at least appreciate that the art (visuals and music) is good as well. For $15, it's a good deal, me thinks.

A potent action roguelite:

Everspace is a blast. Despite having only put 31 hours in it, I could've sworn I had played it more. If you're familiar with dog-fighting games, then this one will be really easy to pick up but the real mastery comes into play when you have all sorts of weapons and gadgets to choose from in the moment but switching to them on the fly can make or break an engagement. The game starts out easy enough but as you go on, it really starts to lay into you with engagements that expect you to know how to play the game well.

This game is a roguelite, so failure and mastery are part of the process. But as you get better at the game, it will become an absolute spectacle when you're dodging missiles you can't even see while switching to your drone salvager to get rid of a pesky webber drone, all the while knowing to take cover from the wave of enemies that's teleporting in right above you, pulling it all off with style.

And speaking of style, this game runs really well despite being really good looking. Seriously, I wouldn't have thought my computer could handle this game but it doesn't even run slightly hot despite all of the effects that are going on. Looks are a mere bonus but a welcome one when the game is already this good.

However, just like any other roguelite, as you get better at the game, it will start to get a bit repetitive. You will become familiar with the weapons and enemies and when you end up dying later in the game, it'll be frustrating because it just means that you have to trudge through the easy engagements of the early game all over again. The fun in this game comes from the challenge and overcoming said challenge but when you have to play through an easy segment just to get going again, it can feel like you're wasting your time.

Regardless, I do think that this is about the only downside to the game (in my opinion). Weapon and enemy variety aren't huge but they're satisfying enough, especially when mixed and matched. Altogether, this game is absolutely worth getting. I even think that $30 is a good deal for the experience I've gotten out of it. But as of posting this review, the game is $6 from the Steam Summer Sale. That is a seriously good deal. I can't recommend this enough.

Addendum: the soundtrack is great and the story is neat. Not much else to say with regard to that.

Important note: this review pertains to the vanilla game. I haven't played the DLC so any outstanding details I might've missed are due to a lack of having experienced them myself.