Recent reviews by Capn Queer

Risk of Rain 1 was one of my favorite games for years, with countless hours put into it with and without mods and a lot of love for the world and various little stories that I saw little snippets and hints of through the various logs and environments.

I expected Risk of Rain 2 to be not quite as good, but still fun enough to justify my purchase, because that's how it tends to go when 2D games try to go 3D.

Instead, it ended up being insanely good to the point that I consider it near perfect, to the point that the addition of more content is a side-grade because the base package is already so well crafted, more a consideration for variety than anything if you've already played it enough that you want some spice and think the DLC or any of the numerous great mods made by the community might be fun.

Combat is simple, enemies have easily readable telegraphs and ways to avoid their attacks but as they stack up more and more it gets more and more frantic, items are generally well designed and nearly all of them feel like they fulfill some purpose, and even the ones that don't manage that are generally at least fun to mess around with, survivors all have decently unique kits that play well off themselves, environments are fun to traverse and have at least a few points of interest, the writing and visual design is just as good as the first game, and the music by Christ Christodoulou moves perfectly between relatively calm exploration, heavier fight music, and even at some points gets genuinely hauntingly beautiful.

In every way that I love Risk of Rain 1, they've made a successor that I love just as much. In my opinion, this is the best rogue-like game of all time, one of the better third person shooters, and so much more than worth the 30 bucks.

It's a fighting game without the usual barrier to entry of fighting games, that being general execution. People kinda take it for granted, but things like combos are really hard to hit as a new player, and a lot of the time it can put people off when the vast majority of the cool things you can do you need to practice regularly for weeks to be able to get to do decently often, especially when your hands just kinda... can't do that? Eliminating that and focusing in on prediction and decision making skills make YOMI Hustle way more accessible to me, and it would probably be a really good entry point for a lot of people who would otherwise be just unable to get into fighting games. As a bonus, the modding scene's great, so while a four character roster might feel a bit bare to some people it's not like you can't fill it out yourself really easily and find characters that appeal to you. I admittedly haven't played very long, but it's absolutely worth the money, Ivy's done a really good job here, as have all of the modders who've decided to toss in their own ideas.

Destiny is a game that I've been playing for a Long time, started back in the original launch of Destiny 1 and kept going all the way through Witch Queen, interest flagging from time to time but overall I've always been very hopeful for the game and I've always loved the lore and world. That being said, it's become harder and harder to justify supporting them over time. Witch Queen is genuinely in my opinion some of the best content we've ever seen, as were some of the seasons before it story-wise. I kinda ran into burn-out with the seasons past the first for Witch Queen, but that wasn't due to any lack of quality as far as I was concerned, more just me being a bit tired.

And then Lightfall happened.

An expansion that frankly should not have happened in the first place, that nobody likes, that should have costed way less, that gave us one good raid and a subclass while unceremoniously dumping one of the most interesting characters in the series with a boss fight that was literally just a bigger version of two standard enemies, that was nothing but padding between Witch Queen and The Final Shape to the point that you could literally cut it out completely and just keep the intro and ending cutscenes and it would make just as much of an impact, paired with seasons that, while genuinely good from what I could tell, also just should not have been seasons, because all of that super important story content would just go away, because the entirety of the good that existed in the plot of Lightfall would *cease to exist* in under a year.

Destiny 2 already had a massive problem with being hell to get into, because unlike what Bungie says this is Not a free to play game, it's not even as close to being free to play as other MMOs like FF14, this is a game that asks a minimum of $135 without tax if you want to access all of the content, and that's not including the current seasons which are going away in under a year plus the $100 every single year to get the new expansion and the seasons that come with it, and if you don't shell out that money what do you have? The New Light intro missions, the Strike and PVP playlists, Nightfalls, holiday events, basic destination content like Public Events and Lost Sectors, two raids, Dares of Eternity, and two missions that exist only to advertise to you.

That's next to nothing.

You don't get Stasis or Strand, the biggest climax you get in terms of story is you Completing A Strike, and you don't get Any major additions to the game, the last one being Dares which happened 2 years ago, coming up on 3.

This is not a free to play game, it's not even a particularly good paid game, ESPECIALLY given the price tag, and that's not even bringing up the atrocious store that sells pants for the same prices you can get entire really good games that you can play for hundreds of hours. Hell, you can get better value out of most actual free to play games for that money.

The world and lore are still the best they've ever been as far as I can tell from my admittedly limited interaction post-Witch Queen, but there is Nothing that can justify over $100 a year for a game like this to me, and with the way Bungie management has handled the consequences of their own decisions by firing so many people? I don't really have hope for it getting better any time soon. Maybe they'll improve things with The Final Shape and its subsequent changes to the pass structure, but I doubt it, and even if it does? I don't even know if it'll be comprehensible to me with how much of the game will have been outright removed by the time I get back with all of that seasonal content getting removed.

This is a series that I've been in love with through its earliest moments, even when those moments didn't live up to its promises, a series that has I've fixated on to the point that I can explain the entire Hive lore from memory, that has shaped my aesthetics and preferences to the point that my avatar's head is supposed to be a riff on one of the Warlock exotics in game (even if that might not really come across at the time of writing this review with the cartoonier look, lack of stars, and thinner metal portion), something that is Still influencing my taste in media and the media I myself want to make, it's something that I doubt I'll ever fully leave behind in terms of story, visuals, or emotion, but even then, my love for it and my patience for Bungie's business decisions has limits.

From where I stand, this ship's sinking, I don't see any reason to believe it's going to change with how Bungie's operating now, and I have no desire to stay and watch it go down.

Edit: So, Final Shape happened, we've gone from a great launch that had everyone looking at it as they stuck the landing and finally looked like they were about to recover to... bad, then worse. I wish I could say that things have changed, The Final Shape is So Incredibly Good, it's everything I could have asked for in the end to a 10 year plot line that I've been hooked on from back when we were still trying to piece together the plot from out of game lore cards.

And it looks like rather than a second wind to revitalize the series, something that could bring me back and lead into a brighter future for the franchise, it's a last gasp before it's put into a holding pattern, the teams gutted and swapped around because management thought a buzzword sounded cool, so many people who made the game I Loved kicked out without a job so that the rich could stay rich rather than having those actually making the decisions that put Bungie in such a dire financial decision face any consequences for their actions.

I guess I should have expected it, it's not like any amount of success saved studios like Tango when rich people wanted more money, why would it save Bungie?

Of course, it's not dead yet, and thinking logically I could see the new structure being beneficial, it's not like they could keep topping themselves forever, and there's still plenty of space to play around with smaller plot-lines that would actually fit for Shadowkeep sized expansions. There's room to grow, room to change, room to get out of this mess they've been put in by people disconnected from the love and care they've poured into making a game that should have been great.

As it stands though, they're teetering on the edge, unable to get new or returning players both due to cost and the removal of important story content necessary to understand the plot, maybe they could start rectifying that by making some of those smaller content releases returning locations and activities that can bridge the gap, maybe with a bit of new voice acting and some touch-ups to modernize things, but I won't hold my breath.

The ship's still sinking, and the people least affected will, as always, be the ones responsible who will continue forcing others through relentless working conditions, burnout, and horrible decisions that remain entirely disconnected from reality, watching from their golden life rafts as the artists, programmers, and designers who made the things we love drown.

The Final Shape is the best expansion that the franchise has ever seen, and the people who made it will never see a fraction of the praise and love their work deserves because people like Pete Parsons ruining it for everyone.

I hope the cars were worth it Petey, what you do with your money doesn't particularly matter to me, but lying to the faces of your employees and laying them off without warning after inviting them over to come see your new Rich Guy Purchases isn't a good look, and you deserve every bit of ire you get from those whose livelihoods you ruined.

This game frankly isn't worth your time. Yeah, it's probably one of the prettiest and most convenient ways to play, but it's also Very lacking in a lot of ways, from formats to in-game economy to just lacking a lot of cards from the actual game, and also Wizards do not deserve your money in any fashion, both for their insane prices that make the game practically impossible to keep up with for the average consumer, and Especially after the Pinkerton incident. If you wanna play MTG specifically? Use proxies or hop on a Discord call with some friends and use one of the unofficial online players like Cockatrice. It might not be the smoothest gameplay experience since, but you'll have access to Every card for your decks and be able to have fun in whatever way you want.

Not quite sure how things will pan out with the massive influx of users from VRChat and the servers still being a bit on fire due to how quickly they're having to upgrade to account for everyone, and my experience with the platform is admittedly pretty limited, but, well, based on just the features it seems to already be a better game than VRC, even if it has its problems, and it's open to modding that can allow the disabled community that got booted off VRC to find a home again. The community seems pretty friendly too, at least from what I've experienced on their Discord. They're pretty open and welcoming towards everyone and seem overall pretty alright with people from VRC joining on, so if you're looking for a new place to go I'd go here.

Terraria, one of (in my opinion) the best games of all time but, y'know, with endless modded content to liven up every stage of the game. Mod support is always a good thing, and this isn't any different.

It's a pretty decent game, and probably the best to get into the series with due to it being far easier and simpler to understand, but to be honest that's really all it has going for it. If you have the patience for it I'd just recommend going for one of the other games. They have unique stories and worlds, characters to call their own and places to see. Even when DS2 missed the mark in terms of tone and gameplay, it could at least stand on its own as a genuinely unique experience, but while certain elements have been added DS3 just doesn't. It spends its entire runtime as a victory lap for a game that didn't need it, jacking off DS1 while for the most part ignoring 2's existence, and while The Ringed City was genuinely great and wraps things up pretty well this wasn't a series that needed a defined endpoint. It's just all kind of pointless.

The setting is great, and I really enjoy the building and systems for upgrading your character, but things like the incredibly linear and annoying main story, the lackluster exploration, and the bare-bones combat mechanics really hold it back for me. There are lots of little fixes, such as making the story line optional (or making the cutscenes skippable) and increasing the difficulty on bosses and enemies to force a more tactical approach that could make that side of the game interesting, and if the game got some more work it could really be great. Just can't recommend it over something more fully realized like Terraria until it gets some more love from Chucklefish.

Edit: Yeah I didn't know about the whole unpaid child labor thing when I first wrote this review. Chucklefish does not deserve your money in the slightest, not in the state the game's in, not with the things the people in charge have done. Before I could say that this is a game I wanted to love, now I can safely say it's a game I never will, unless the source code leaks resulting in something better being made from the husk that it currently is.

While this game may be old it's still really good, with plenty of challenges and content to keep you coming back for years after release. Good progression, tons of bosses and events, fun weapons, and a fleshed out building system that allows you to make pretty much whatever you want so long as you gather enough resources make it a lot better than similar games like Starbound in my opinion.

On top of that, while they may have technically stopped development on Terraria, Re-Logic has stopped development on it like 4 times and always come back with some big update, and even without those updates there's still thousands of easily accessible mods to play around with to keep the game interesting even almost 7 years after release.

There's really no reason not to get Terraria, especially since it's only 10$, so if you're looking for a new game to play and haven't tried it then just go for it. You won't regret it.

Y'know, I really thought if I ever left a review for this game it'd be something positive. It is, or I guess I should say now Was, everything I wanted out of a social game. You could and still can make what you want, do what you want, there are thousands of avatars and maps, people making interesting new content, the works... but now they've kinda kicked me off the platform. And people like me. Which sucks. Anti-cheat I could see being... vaguely a good idea with the right implementation. Though it's not as big of a problem as rippers and crashers malicious clientside modding is a problem. Should that have come at the cost of not just quality of life features, but the majority of the disabled playerbase though?

No. No it shouldn't. They've said that they want to add in accessibility features and address Some of our concerns, but, well, it's too little too late. Though it was a wonderful hub of creativity and social interaction, the devs have made it clear that a significant portion of the people who come here are secondary, that the needs of the disabled Don't Matter as much as... well, I can't even really call it security. This doesn't make things any safer for the vast majority of players. We just... don't matter to them. Which sucks, y'know? A place that seemed so welcoming, that I felt like I could get lost in and make new friends, experience new things, that felt like everything I wanted, just... doesn't want me back. Didn't want anyone like me back.

I've been spending months working on models, learning to make my own avatars because content creators inspired me, I was planning on trying my hand at map making with my older brother because the worlds I saw and inhabited even for a moment were breathtaking, we were even thinking about setting up a virtual concert for one of our friends, but, well... guess I'll have to go elsewhere now. Maybe I'll come back in a few years. They might have done enough good to warrant coming back then, I've seen games in worse states make better turnaround, but for now?

I guess this is goodbye.