Recent reviews by Brasan

Riven is a surprisingly faithful adaptation of the source material, with landscapes that largely match the original still shots. Not completely, mind you, there have been changes made to better fit a 3D environment and a fair few puzzles have been tweaked in small (or sometimes large) ways, but still feel like they belong. This still feels like Riven in the best ways possible, with lovely soundscapes that bring you right back to the original game, and impressive UE5-rendered graphics (although with the occasional flickering or low rendering distance for a some shadows) that perform very solidly on my machine. I have encountered one crash and one bug soft-locking me in place so far, but Cyan seem to be pretty responsive with their patches so i trust them to sort this out quickly enough.

Overall, if you enjoyed the original to any degree then i give this a solid recommendation. It's not the exact same game, but can absolutely make you feel the way you did when playing the 1997 original.

Just like the original demo this is still a wonderfully moody and exploration-heavy platformer. The feeling of asking yourself "Can i really go there?" and then doing just that is very rewarding. If you're reading this to figure out whether or not to give this demo a try then i'll give you a solid recommendation right now. The rest of the review will be feedback on the demo itself.

Like some other reviews mentioned the world feels just a bit more "prepeared", like it's laid out specifically for the player instead of having formed on its own. That's why i preferred the original demo's world a bit more, it's not a big deal though.

I like the lore tidbits you get from scanning parts of the environment, and they seem less hidden than in the original demo, which is a plus to me.

The seemingly improved fog and wind effects add to the already very athmospheric world the game takes place in. It's pretty same-y, that's true, but it's clearly intentional and fits the brutalist-like vibes very well. I wouldn't mind if the ambient music/soundscape was expanded though. It's a single ambient loop at the moment with only your footsteps and the wind as background sound. I feel like more could be done here to enhance the athmosphere even more!

There are a few UI additions i wouldn't mind seeing, such as an indicator for when you're in grabbing-range of a wall (to avoid having to spam click to grab when trying to nail precise wall-jumps), and having the range indicator extended so that you can tell if a medium-length fall will be fatal or not before attempting it. Also you run out of stamina before the bar is visually empty, making it look like you should have a tiny bit left.

And a last minor point of feedback: The V-Sync option in the settings has the options 1x/2x/3x. I'm guessing this is single/double/triple-buffering, but it could be reworded to make that clearer.

Overall the game shows a lot of promise, and i'm excited to see what's next in its development!

Roll a ball through some of the most beautiful and striking environments i've ever seen. If the "vibe" that the landscapes in the screenshots have makes you at least a little interested then you'll love exploring your way through the game. It absolutely nails the style it's going for and i love it, even if i struggle to put into words what that style actually is. Just be aware that is a puzzle-focused game, and they can be pretty tricky (but not *too* tricky), but they are also quite interesting and take good advantage of the expansive levels they're set in.

There are a few annoyances with the game: Levels can't be replayed until you've finished the game. The settings menu is vague and the font it uses is almost unreadable at first. It also lacks options to individually toggle or adjust some of the various post-processing and other visual effects the game uses, although some of this can be done in the .ini files for now.

The movement of the ball also might not be what you expect. It feels quite dense, meaning turns are slow if you're moving at any real speed, and braking takes longer than you might expect. Flat surfaces have very little friction when slowing your movement, so it's also surprisingly hard to stop your ball completely. The movement might therefore feel "off" and frustrating if you have experience with other marble games, although personally this wasn't that big of an issue and i got used to it pretty quickly.

Overall those annoyances won't stop me from strongly recommending the game to anyone who's looking for a fun marble game with unique and interesting puzzles, or someone who've fallen for the style and design the same way i did.

Short but sweet cosmic horror that plays around with some interesting concepts. For such a low price it's a recommend.

Criminally underrated survival game.

Keeps the stellar writing and the dark, often lovecraftian, atmosphere of Sunless Sea while making progressing through the game significantly less grindy. The addition of difficulty options when creating a new game is very welcome as well. If you, like me, wanted to love Sunless Sea but couldn't handle the grindy start then this i strongly recommend Sunless Skies.

- Fun gameplay
- Wonderful and heartwarming story
- Great soundtrack

Highly recommended