Recent reviews by Dapper Raptor

Let me start by saying I usually love games most people would call "pretentious" and "arty". I don't really need games to make sense or have a cohesive narrative or anything if they have something to say. I believe I am probably the target audience of a game like this... But this was a waste of money.

Not only is the story uninteresting, poorly delivered and just bland, the logical leaps required to unlock all the bits and pieces of it are just stupid. The game is described (by the developer on the Steam page) as "inspired by The Twilight
Zone, The X-Files, and the Black Mirror television series." and I cannot help but think that they have absolutely no understanding of what makes those sorts of shows interesting.

That all aside, the developer also hasn't disabled the default VR plugins for Unreal Engine 4, meaning that it constantly tries to run through VR despite not actually supporting it, and if you close SteamVR it closes the game. The only way to get it to work is to disconnect your VR headset and let SteamVR run with an error while you play the game.

Honestly, your money could go to far, far better games than this one.

I got this game when it first came out and enjoyed it thoroughly. However, my less patient, younger self was not able to finish one of the levels around the middle of the game.

I just went back and replayed it from start to finish in one sitting and I really enjoyed it. Its an incredible piece of interactive art.

Wow... just... wow. I knew this was going to be good. I knew it might even be great but ♥♥♥♥ - this is by far the best Half-Life game to date, and does such a wonderful job of bringing the franchise back.

Mechanically, almost everything is so incredibly well polished. I'm not a fan of shooters in VR for the most part, because I hate how floaty guns always feel. Valve fixed this by making all the guns one-handed weapons, and letting you mod them to mix it up. The shooting is VERY good, and has me wondering why more games don't do this now!

And the gravity gloves... I don't even know how to express how good they are. They alone make this game worth playing and I fully expect we will see similar style mechanics implemented in a LOT of VR titles going forward because they make even just picking up objects in the world fun.

I have a few issues with the pacing in the second and third hour, where it feels a little slow and tedious, and there's some little issues here and there, like how doors are really annoying and feel weightless (they don't ruin t he game, but sometimes you will go to walk through an open door and it will get caught on your "body" and close in front of you and that - small thing but it was annoying). I also personally feel like the second half of the game is a bit too easy, but I know Valve are introducing a lot of people to VR for the first time so that's okay.

Overall, this is easily the best longform VR experience I've ever had, and nothing even comes close. Realistically there's not an insane amount of new stuff here - its more that Valve have taken things and made them better (for instance - the gravity gloves are a tweaked version of the force grab a lot of games already have - but they are tweaked so perfectly that it almost feels like a new thing entirely). Games like Boneworks do, realistically, do a lot more in terms of moving VR forward mechanically, but this is Valve at its best, refining and revolutionising through a highly polished experience.

Oh, and if you care about this franchise, AT ALL, you need to avoid all spoilers. I don't wanna say anymore than that - but theres big spoilers for not just this game, but the franchise at large. If you can, play this ASAP.

I'm really, really torn on this one. Part of me -really- wants to recommend it, other parts -really- don't.

So first up - mechanically its a fairly standard walking simulator (not a bad thing IMO - I love the genre). It plays much like Gone Home, What Remains of Edith Finch, and especially Firewatch. In fact I feel like this game was a response to Firewatch's success. It has a lot of similarities - particularly the back and forth between your character and a secondary person you haven't met, where a relationship develops between the two as things spiral. It is VERY similar to Firewatch.

So mechanically it works fine. There is a horrid over-the-top depth-of-field effect that gave me motion sickness (I play VR and I never get motion sick - this game did it though)... so I would strongly recommend if you buy it, check the forums - there's an ini tweak you can do to disable the effect and it helps tremendously. Unfortunately the game also has a really bad headbob that cannot be disabled.

Where it gets complicated is the story itself. I don't want to spoil it for anyone but there's a LOT of stuff in here that I think needs a big warning before you buy the game. Obviously the title suggests it touches on notions of suicide - but it gets a lot more full on than it might seem, and I do think that if you are someone who is impacted by suicide, then this might be a skip for you. Likewise, if you are someone who is emotionally impacted by the concept of an adult male having a relationship with an underaged girl, you are going to probably have some issues with this also. There's points in the narrative that almost feel like the developer trying to justify someone dating and getting a 16 year old girl pregnant (I'm not sure that's what it is - but it certainly feels like it at points). Overall, there is a lot of touchy subject matter here that isn't always handled well, so its very rough around the edges. If you are sensitive to these topics at all, I'd advise caution at best, but realistically skip the game.

Beyond that - the story is interesting, and for the most part handled well, but there are definitely some awkward stages in it. The entire first hour of the game comprises of very awkward dialogue between the two characters and feels like a student's first writing project. The main character is not likeable at first, and not in a way that adds depth, just in a way that makes her feel like an ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. And the character she is discussing feels like he was written too obviously in my mind, I don't really want to say more on it than that.

After the initial teething issues, and as the main threads of the story start to ramp up, their back and forth is a lot more natural and interesting, but there are several points at which the story just jumps a little too far and almost jumps the shark. It is never outright bad, but just feels like some attention was given to the wrong parts, and not to the important parts. This isn't helped by the fact that the chapters of the game just end without warning, often giving you a prompt fade to black when you are walking over to investigate something. It hurts the pacing a lot.

Finally - there are a few key plot points that straight up don't make sense. I can't go into them without spoilers, and perhaps some would discount it as "its just a game"... but there's just some revelations towards the end where you are left to just accept the plot as it is, despite the fact that it really doesn't fit with how things would play out in real life. There are discussions on the forums here going over the plot holes, and I wouldn't really advise reading them unless you want to not play the game, but just be aware that you will have to heavily suspend disbelief in a game that really tries to play a straight story for the most part.

If you are fairly thick-skinned on the mentioned issues, you don't mind some bad writing, and you enjoy games of this genre, grab this on sale. But for most people I think you could do better elsewhere. I don't regret the purchase or playing the game, its just unfortunate that more care wasn't given in some places and that the way certain subjects are presented are a little problematic without any real payoff.

Amazing town survival sim that will test your patience when you die over and over, but hey that's kind of the point!

Hero Siege is a very mediocre and derivative title that brings almost nothing new to the genre. That itself would be enough for a negative review, but the CEO of Panic Art is also a racist and sexist who has said that (in regards to his money) "every investment kills as many of these animals as possible" (by animals he was referring to people of colour and from the middle east).

DO NOT SUPPORT TRASH LIKE THIS

I'm not sure what it was about this game, but I was really uninterested for the lognest time. Then when it came out reviews mentioning it being a bit easy and suffering from some bugs really turned me off. But after all the praise it received in GOTY discussions, I was curious, so I picked it up on sale - and omfg I am annoyed I slept on this one.

Its easily one of the best games I've played in quite some time. Sure combat is a little easy, and once or twice my companions got stuck and I had to move them myself (by pushing into them) to get them to continue - but the story is so well crafted, and the gameplay segments are really very tense. It shares a lot in common with Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, which I definitely wasn't expecting.

I don't really want to say anymore, because the less you know the better - but if you enjoy well crafted stories that make you question your decisions at time, and push your emotions - then this really should be a game you play asap.

Really enjoyable on a mechanical level, and surprisingly interesting narratively. Looking forward to the DLC!

Well, I just finished Moons of Madness in a single sitting. At about 4-5 hours, the length is nice for this sort of game IMO. As for the game... that on the other hand is a little more complicated to rate...

I enjoyed MoM a lot, and I don't regret the purchase. But it did fall flat in a few areas for me. Obviously I don't want to spoil anything so I won't talk about anything specific to the story, but there are definitely a few points where your character shifts from fairly intense moments of panic to very casual and almost cheerful soliloquy. The issue is that they are very jarring tonal shifts, because there's no passing of time between these moments, your character literally goes from gasping for air and fear of dying induced panic to jovially talking about his childhood within seconds. It really hurts the overall pacing for me. I also feel like the narrative beats were a little too telegraphed, and there weren't really too many surprises.

Overall, my biggest issue is that while there is a lot of Lovecraftian themes and notes that are very successfully incorporated into the game, they are a little at odds with the character and his actions, and it ends up feeling a bit like two different games were smashed together and sometimes that works, and at other points it feels very inconsistent.

I think if you are someone who likes to eat up any Lovecraft inspired works, you'll probably have a pleasant time here. Likewise if you are just looking for a nice horror story, you could do a lot worse (some of the jump scares in this were incredibly well timed). But if you aren't sold very heavily from the trailers, I'd wait for a sale.

EDIT: Just wanted to add on that the level design in MoM is, for the most part, incredibly well done. This is true also of the artistic direction. I personally found the music to be somewhat forgettable but that is obviously going to vary quite a lot from person to person.

Lets get this out of the way - lets address the disparity between the alpha and the current game and then look at the game on its own merits... Overall TLDR at the end for those interested.


COMPARISON TO ALPHA:
A lot of changes have happened since the alpha was released 6 years ago. This should have been obvious and expected to everyone - the developer even clearly stated as much in his infrequent updates. But what do the changes mean?

The alpha of Cube World was a much more standard RPG formula. You grinded mobs for XP, which let you put points into a skill tree and level up. This is pretty normal, and there's a reason it has become the standard - it works. Its rewarding and enjoyable, and there's always a clear path for progression. It makes a game more accessible and for many, more enjoyable.

The 2019 release of Cube World completely abandoned this structure in favour of a more unique one that has players essentially abandoning most of their gear each time they move to a new region and making only small incremental skill progression over time. Whats more, the skill progression, at launch at least, is tied to fairly passive stats such as mount riding speed, swimming speed, lamp radius and hang glider speed.

The change is seen, by many, to be quite reductive and something that penalises exploration. Detractors claim that they never want to leave their initial spawn biome, due to the fact that their gear becomes useless. Those who enjoy the system see it another way, enjoying the push to "clear" a region entirely before moving on. Which camp you are in is going to be very much dependent on the sort of player you are, and realistically neither side are "right" - they are simply different playstyles.

In terms of longer term progression (the incremental passive skill upgrades) - as you explore a zone, doing location-based quests and such, you will have NPCs talk of artifacts, or find locations of artifacts in other ways, that will do this. Artifacts give your character these passive skill upgrades, as well as "level up" your character. In truth, levelling up seems to be merely a numbers thing, as it does not appear to have any real impact on your player (obviously the passive skill upgrade does) and is just simply a way for you to track how many times you have got an artifact.

Regarding gear - yes most of your gear is almost useless (becomes super low level) when you cross the border into a new region. Not just your armour and weapons, but also your transport gear (boat, hang glider, climbing spikes, etc.). This is a little jarring and there's not really any in-game explanation for it (such as it being tied to a magical power source in each region or anything like that). It just happens. Again - whether this bothers you or not is going to vary from person to person, but its definitely something you should be aware of. You can get special "+" gear (ie. a sword called "sword of killing +" ) that will allow you to use it in adjacent zones, but the transport gear will never carry over (at least not as far as anyone has found yet). This essentially forces you to start over every zone, with a minor passive skill upgrade, or maybe a few bits of gear. At the time of writing, no one has found a way to reliably find + gear, and it appears to just be a low percentage RNG drop (can also sometimes be crafted or bought in the towns).

So what have the changes done? Realistically, they've taken a exploration RPG with wide appeal to the gaming community due to recognisable systems and turned it into an exploration RPG that appeals to a specific crowd. Its not a bad game, but I would argue that its a different type of game now than it was in alpha. Understandably, a lot of people are upset about this. But in contrast a lot of people are also enjoying the new system.


THE GAME ON ITS OWN MERITS:

So if you are just hearing about Cube World... what is it? Its a voxel-based exploration ARPG where you go from location to location, killing enemies and engaging in a few other simplistic systems to acquire specific gear, as well as armour and weapons.

On paper, the game is really very simple - there's 4 main classes, each with 2 sub classes, and they break down as you would expect (warrior, mage, rogue and ranger). Each character has a few attacks and some movement abilities to break it up, and while the classes do play fairly differently, the simplistic nature of the game means that you can fairly easily find a groove in whatever playstyle you choose and make it work. You will be dodgy attacks, attacking enemies, running away and hiding to heal, etc. All the good things you've come to expect from exploration RPGs.

The goal of the game is to go from region to region, exploring each region quite exhaustively, acquiring gear to make that process easier, and getting better gear. Once you are ready to move on, you will have to do it all over again in the next region. The ultimate goal, if you are looking for one, is to acquire powerful artifacts that give your character some passive skill buffs that become permanent. There are quests, but these essentially boil down to "npc x tells you that item y is at location z" and you go to that location, kill the bad guys and profit.

The game is incredibly simple - but that's not to say its a bad thing. A lot of us have poured hours and hours into the alpha, as well as the pre-release beta, and thoroughly enjoyed the game. But is important to go into the game not expecting an over-arching narrative-driven experience - this is simple exploratory fun. There is no real puzzles or complex systems at play here - its akin to traditional MMOs where the enjoyment is simply in doing things over and over.

I do wish that perhaps you could buy a map showing all locations in a region (make it very expensive) and that maybe artifact buffs were a little more meaningful (attack power, health, etc. not just glider speed and so on), but I am excited to see where the devs take the game. Even if it were to receive no more content, I've gotten more than my money out of the beta already (and that's not to mention all the time I put into the alpha).


TLDR; Cube World is great fun. But its not a game that is going to satisfy everyone. If you want a more traditional RPG experience, whether that be a narrative or loot driven one, you might be better looking elsewhere. If you simply enjoy exploring and whacking bad guys - maybe give the game a go. I'm hoping that the developer expands upon the base game and maybe diversifies progression and activities a bit, but it is a solid title that deserves recognition IMO. Your mileage may vary. :)