Recent reviews by Denizen Blue

Short Version: Neat world aesthetic that plays with its visual themes well and in interesting ways, but the puzzles aren't going to challenge anyone who's beaten a Legend of Zelda or similar game. If challenge isn't what you're after, though, Hob is a pretty decent romp through some gorgeous world design, but it does get let down by its implementation at times.

Longer version: I got to see a sample of Hob back when it was still in its infancy at E3. It was less than a single zone's worth of content, but I thoroughly enjoyed what I got to play and looked forward to more. A few years went by before I caught sight of it again, and then a few more still before I got it as a gift. And while my time with it has been positive enough to warrant a recommendation, I will say I was a little disappointed. The game feels... unfinished isn't quite the right word; it runs fine and all the elements that need to be there are there and work as intended. I think "unrealized" is probably closer to what I feel Hob is. There could've been much, much more to this game that would've made it more interesting, but it feels like it got a solid core built and polished and then just published that. No bells or whistles, no real USP aside from the visual design: just a very functional, exploration and puzzle-focused adventure game.

And "puzzle" is being generous. Hob's puzzles are nearly always "Go here, press a button, watch the little cutscene moment that shows a whole bunch of scenery sliding into or out of place, and then figure out where the next button is." It's not difficult, and it's really all the game has to throw at you aside from the combat, which is also lackluster.

For a game that clearly isn't aiming to be difficult, you die exceptionally fast when fighting more than one or two enemies at once. You have both a dodge and a shield, but the shield slows you down so much that anything except the thing you're targeting can basically get free shots off on you, and the dodge can weave you right through most enemy attacks which makes the shield nearly useless anyway. And you deal so little damage and enemies have so much health that the only really safe tactic is to roll in, get as many hits in as you can, and roll out again until it's finally dead. And again, if you're dealing with multiple enemies and you have to do that dance with each of them... well, yeah, I ended up running past whatever fights I could.

This all sounds like I really don't want to recommend Hob, and I don't mean to nitpick it or be overly mean. Plenty of independent games try to go to market with a less-than-solid core and end up getting completely forgotten about, and Hob certainly doesn't deserve that. It's clear it was a labor of love from everyone involved, and I look forward to what that team goes on to make! Hob is worth the time you'll spend with it, even if only just.

Webbed is a delight from start to finish. It's a simple little game, based around a strong core mechanic of using your webs to get from place to place, which feels fun and intuitive all by itself. Honestly, the game could just be an explorative playground where all there is to do is talk to different bugs and swing your way around the world picking up collectibles and finding new places, and I'd still highly recommend it! But the narrative gives plenty of direction and the story, however light it may be, is grounding enough that it's satisfying to complete. It's not a long game; my full playthrough only clocked in at around 4 hours, with plenty of side-quest exploration and hemming and hawing at different puzzles, but I certainly didn't find everything there was to be found, and the core web-swinging mechanic is so fun it's easy to lose hours just to that. Wholeheartedly recommended, and it's been a pleasure to watch this game's development and so satisfying to see it finally released!

Overall, Gunfire: Reborn still has some growing pains, since it's still in early access, but what it does have for now is very solid and quite fun, especially with friends.

It's a rogue-light FPS, where the guns you obtain throughout the run are randomized (from a pool that grows as you encounter and defeat new enemies). In each run, you obtain "Soul Essence" which is the currency that allows you to buy upgrades to your character that persist through death. This currency is also used to revive you when you die in a run, at least the first time, which creates an interesting dilemma for players as they weigh the value of their current progress against the potential to earn back the loss and then some. This is partly why the game is more rewarding with multiple players, since your allies can revive you for free (at low health) so long as they can get to you in time.

The variety of guns, as well as the "scrolls" and "ascensions" that grant different buffs that can drastically change your playstyle from run to run, is what gives Gunfire the bulk of its replayability. You'll very rarely find yourself in the exact same situation from one run to the next, between having different weapons (or even weapons with different randomized traits), scrolls, and ascensions drop for you. Still, there are enough options, some of which come up frequently enough, that its easy to establish a favored playstyle and either hone your skill with it to such a degree that the game becomes much easier or your build for it gets so wildly overpowered that you steamroll the rest of the game. And that's not a bad thing in either situation; both are rewarding to their own ends, and it's not as though the second scenario happens frequently.

As far as negative points, the game's movement can feel extremely floaty and imprecise. In the absence of being able to sprint, your only options are to hope to find scrolls that improve your base movement speed (of which there aren't many) or that improve your cooldown-gated Dash ability, and having neither of those results in the game feeling substantially more sluggish to control. And the fact that the Dash, while useful, can be used in the air but doesn't carry your character's momentum ends up feeling extremely unwieldy.

Additionally, the game does have replayability but after you've been through about 20 hours of it, you do get the sense that it's shown you all it can. Oh sure, you won't end up in the same room, with the same weapons, with the same ascensions and scrolls, twice in a row; but the enemies don't really change from run to run, even on elite where they can get different, randomized passive buffs. All of the weapons are varied enough to be interesting, but you'll find yourself consistently passing up certain ones because they don't have the particular combination of randomized perks that make that weapon really shine; to say nothing of weapons that just don't fit into your particular playstyle. And while it might take you longer than 20 hours to see all the different weapons (simply because some of them are locked behind randomly encountering particular elite enemies that you're in no way guaranteed to encounter), by that point you'll have gotten the gist of what Gunfire: Reborn has to offer.

Still, as I said, it's in early access yet. The dev roadmap is promising, with new characters, zones, weapons, and more all planned for release in the coming year. If you're intrigued by the concept of a rougelike or rouge-light first-person shooter, especially a multiplayer one, definitely give Gunfire: Reborn a look. Just bear in mind that it isn't necessarily ready for primetime just yet.

Armello *really* wanted me to like it, and I wanted just as badly to like it, but in the end I can't recommend it. There are some things to recommend, certainly; the game isn't without it's good points. The art is phenomenal, and it's really cool that all of the individual artists are credited on the cards they helped design. It's a very deep game, mechanically, with lots to discover in terms of how each characters' ability interacts with others, as well as the wide variety of other effects from cards, random events, and even the battlefield itself. It's also a very lore-rich game, with a flavor somewhere between Game of Thrones and the Redwall books.

All that said... this game has one of the worst-designed tutorials I think I've ever come across. Granted, making a tutorial for a game with so many random elements is always going to be a daunting prospect; I really don't know how an effective tutorial for a game with this many moving parts could be constructed and yet not overwhelm the player with information at the same time. But by the same token, there are things that just straight up don't get explained in the tutorial *at all* as far as how to use certain cards; not even just what scenarios those cards are useful in, but whether you use it on yourself or on your enemy (for example) which you'd think would be a crucial thing for a player to understand.

So, the game does a bad job of teaching you how to play it, but on top of that it forces you to play your characters in a sub-optimal way until you've suffered through playing them that way enough to unlock the features of them that actually make them good. There are equippable rings, unique to each tribe or character, that you only unlock after playing a certain number of matches with them, and for most of these it feels like the character isn't complete without one of those particular rings. Because of this, playing against people with more hours invested in the game puts you at a severe disadvantage, on top of fighting the randomness of the cards and the dice.

Ultimately, Armello has a cool core concept that's let down by how cumbersome it is to play. There are too many things to keep track of at once, most of which aren't explained properly (or at all, even) and the only way to learn how to play it is by forcing yourself through it for game after game. Frankly, I didn't find it worth the effort.

I'm glad this game is out of Beta! When I first tried it early on, it was definitely rough around the edges (not a pun at the graphics' expense, btw) and didn't feel like something that would be satisfying to play, certainly not for long stretches. But it's come a long way and I'm happy to say it's now an absolute blast! My only real problems are some minor issues with regards to AI pathing (almost failed a mission because Molly couldn't seem to stop pacing back and forth) and certain hitbox interactions; substantial bugs, but nothing insurmountable. Otherwise, all the characters are satisfying to play and function differently enough from one another and have such clearly defined roles in the team that there's really something for everyone! It's a solid mix of Vermintide/Left 4 Dead style combat combined with unique puzzle-solving elements as you coordinate the different characters towards the mission goal. It's also perfectly playable as a solo experience, though the difference between solo play and group play is pretty jarring; the game is very clearly built around a 4-person team dynamic, with no overlap between classes being optimal. Playing by yourself will definitely have you wishing you had the other classes to help. But that's the nature of the beast, I suppose!

Full disclosure, I've had this game for years sitting in my library and I only recently got around to playing it again. I struggled with it a *lot* when I first got it, but each run through the game was so compelling it kept me coming back for defeat after defeat. It's randomized, which means that it's fully possible (and honestly, pretty common) to get screwed early-on and never even see the end of the game. But generally once you get your feet under you, get a shield upgrade and maybe an extra weapon, the game really opens up. I still haven't seen all of the possible interactions this game has to offer, and given how varied even the non-randomized elements are, I'll probably a couple hundred hours in before I do! A well-balanced, fully engaging experience that rewards thoughtful play and has a very broad selection of playstyles to appeal to almost any strategic mind!

I will admit that I didn't give Destiny 2 enough of a chance when I first played it. Slogging through the tutorial alone, getting so much info thrown at me and not really knowing why I was playing was pretty disheartening. But as I played, I got more into it, and discovered what all this game has to offer, and there's a lot.

I highly recommend playing with friends, since that was the first major hurdle to me enjoying this game; having someone to talk to about the mechanics and bounce ideas off of was immensely helpful for getting to know the ins and outs of the gameplay. But the game has plenty to offer even on a solo experience; there is enough to do, enough challenges and secrets to chase that you can really find something to occupy your time whether you're planning to run around by yourself or with a full squad.

My one complaint, actually, is that some of the multiplayer elements are a bit restrictive. By which I mean, the 3-man PvE events (called Strikes) cannot be played with any more or any less than 3 players. The same goes for the higher-level raids, which require a full team of 6. I feel like the game is dynamic enough to be able to scale the difficulty of a given task to the number of players currently grouped, and I wish that were the case but it is, unfortunately, not. That said, the multiplayer matchmaking is reasonably strong so if you want to jump into Strikes or Raids with strangers, you can absolutely do that. It's not the same as a more coordinated experience with friends, but sometimes that's the fun of it!

Also, good on Bungie for ditching Blizzard right before they lost their minds.

I picked up the 4-pack bundle on a whim and shared it with 3 of my friends. Best decision ever. This game highly encourages you to play with 4 people; the jobs are always possible no matter which of the 8 classes you choose, but the difficulty amps up with fewer tools at your disposal. Since each class has its own specialization that only they can do, not having certain elements available makes missions significantly more daunting when alone. Also, the stealth in this game is quite fun, though perhaps more forgiving than hardcore lovers of stealth games might enjoy. Running around the corner and hiding in a potted plant is usually the best course of action for getting guards off your tail.
9/10, will no doubt be playing this well into the future.