Recent reviews by Dielji

So far, I'm really enjoying what I'm playing. It reminds me so much of early N64 adventure games like Ocarina of Time, Mystical Ninja, Quest 64, and so on. That's clearly intentional, the developer is clearly putting a lot of effort into maintaining the style: hand-animated low-poly models, fuzzy low-res textures, a world that's hand-crafted on a low tech-budget.

There's also this feeling I always got from games back then, when things were new, development studios were small, and everyone was still figuring out how a 3D game should even work. This game has it, and that might be intentional, it might be purely because this game is being made by a solo dev with seemingly little experience who is actually still figuring it out. Either way, it works.

I'm also seeing the same kind of irreverent non-sequiturs that you see in a certain kind of game, where something absurd or over-the-top happens in the story just because the developers thought it would be cool or funny or weird, and there was no one to tell them No. I'm a few hours in, and I've seen several unique and creative encounters that make it clear the developer is not afraid to throw some true surprises at you.

The story is also interesting; there are some common fantasy RPG tropes here, but also some strong twists on those elements that keep you guessing about where certain things are going. There are several characters introduced so far who I am genuinely intrigued by, and a main character who initially comes off as the player-insert silent-protagonist type, but secretly has some personality that starts to come out during certain events and encounters.

All in all, I'm looking forward to seeing how this game and its story develops.

8 hours in, partway through the second island. There are several issues holding the game back so far, but I think I would still recommend it, with the caveat that it would be a much better game with a hefty QOL patch. Feels like the game needed another 6 months of playtesting and ironing out wrinkles, and those wrinkles are holding back a game that has a lot of good ideas. I'm gonna get some of those nitpicks out of the way first, then start talking about the positives, but mostly I'm just gonna ramble:

Menus actively slow you down, mainly because it takes a second before any menu lets you make a selection, and also because it always starts you at the top level pause menu and makes you select the menu before you can select an option; that means sometimes I'm mashing the button waiting for the game to let me select an option, and I end up accidentally hitting the first highlighted option. At one point I went to Save without realizing I couldn't save during a boss fight, and it had auto-highlighted "Quit to Menu" which was pretty infuriating. But if they just remove the delay, and let the player press Down to move into a menu, it would smooth things out. Also, there is a quick-travel mechanic, but it very blatantly either re-uses existing animations or just drops you in place depending on your destination, which makes it feel a little tacked-on.

The battles against the really giant enemies are really cool, but they are also pretty buggy sometimes. It was very common that I would hit a wrong polygon running up the legs of the first giant enemy and end up coming to a dead stop mid-air. And when I did make it up, Sonic's handling mid-air feels so inconsistent sometimes that it would be really hard to actually land on the enemy, and I usually ended up so high up I couldn't target the weak point. It feels like every giant enemy has had some thing about it that felt a little jank like that; for example, there was an enemy with rails that would fire projectiles along the rails, but the hitboxes on those projectiles seemed to extend to the next rail over making them impossible to dodge. There's an enemy with some QTEs that seem to be really inconsistent, sometimes it wouldn't register my inputs at all. I might just be missing something on each of these, but if there's a trick, it isn't obvious.

Sonic's poor air-control also comes into play any time the game asks you to do any precision platforming that doesn't involve rails or bumpers. The level with the spinning platforms was infuriating. Lack of depth-perception makes it even worse. So far I haven't been asked to do that very often, though.

At first I was approaching collectibles from a more completionist point of view, and I still kind of am, but it should be noted that progression does not require 100% completion, it barely even requires 50% completion.

Zooming around the islands actually feels really good. The islands are fun both traversing on foot and grinding on rail-rollercoasters. As you do more of the little minigames and tasks scattered around the islands, you unlock more of the map and unlock more rails that link different areas together and lead to more tokens used to unlock story progression. Finding different platforming sections and completing them for a token is actually really satisfying. And the huge enemies are actually pretty awe-inspiring when you first come across them, making the islands more fun to explore.

Combat is neat, pulling off combos is a little button-mashy but entertaining enough, and running circles around enemies with the loop mechanic is actually pretty satisfying. Being able to do a loop to pull rings out of the ground almost feels like cheating, but it actually solves the classic Sonic problem of tying health to a limited resource; it's basically like being able to stop and heal by running in circles for a bit. It seems like some enemies do partial ring damage, some do full ring damage, and I haven't found the distinction yet, but I wish knocking out all your rings was less common.

Story and characters are great. Voice acting feels on-point, progression is often tied to interactions between Sonic and the other characters, and those scenes are generally pretty charming and make me want to move the story forward.

All in all, I do recommend this game to people who are willing to forgive a little jank and who generally like 3D Sonic games, but I also really hope Sonic Team spends some time adding a little more polish in places that need it.

I put off playing Celeste for a long time because I was intimidated by the difficulty and didn't think I would enjoy the kind of precision platforming where you die over and over again. Not only was I wrong, I found that the game does an excellent job of providing just the right balance of difficulty, accessibility, and setting your own goals and limits. It always kept me engaged, and it always felt fair.

Meanwhile, the story provides motivation to keep moving forward, not because it's especially gripping (although the characters are all quite endearing) but because it's all about overcoming self-doubt and fear of failure, and doing difficult things to learn more about yourself as a person.

I love this game. It's an amazing example of how gameplay that was already extremely unique and interesting with a mouse and keyboard can be amplified to new heights in VR.

In the flatscreen game, your only real means of interacting with the world is to aim and click and your body is constrained to basic movements. In VR, all those restrictions are lifted, you interact using your hands, you move by just... moving. The most generic videogamey elements of the game are replaced with just doing what feels natural, turning the game into a much more primal experience of physically fighting to survive.

The main mechanic of "time only moves when you move" is almost more like "your brain thinks 1000 times faster in this world" letting you micromanage every movement, as though every fight is a choreographed performance by trained professionals, except you're coming up with your own choreography in your head on the spot and then acting it out. It is addicting to work scenes over and over again, and extremely satisfying when you finally find a "performance" that clears the level.

It can be addicting to the point of physical exhaustion, forgetting that you're working so hard that you're sweating. The idea that video games can become something that keep you active and in-shape is one of the major benefits of VR, and this game is in the ranks of games that will make you move.

Frankly, anyone with VR should be playing Superhot VR, it's an experience that should not be missed.

Time-limiting this demo was a terrible idea. It punishes players who take their time exploring the detailed environments and looking for the loot cleverly hidden in all the nooks and crannies, and instead teaches us that the most effective way to get to the end is to ignore everything, run straight past enemies, and rush through. I'll still be playing the full game, but only because I believe this demo was not very representative of the actual game and its pacing and gameplay, which were negatively impacted by the frequent reminders that the clock is ticking. Also because of that, I won't give this demo my recommendation on principle, although that does not reflect my opinion of the full game.

tl;dr The game will be great if they spend a year fixing the numerous bugs and QA/QOL issues that are holding it back, but the core game is at least entertaining if you can look past all that, especially if the story and characters are up your alley.


This is a hesitant and tentative "Yes, I would recommend this game" because while I am enjoying it, that enjoyment is heavily tempered by how unfinished and unpolished it feels. The bones of a great game are here: the story and characters are wonderful, the visual style and setting is beautiful, and the gameplay offers decent variety for an open-world FPS. I am 50 hours in at this point, playing as the feminine version of V, mostly spending my time on the more major sidequests for friends/romantic interests, and with a fairly well-rounded character that leans slightly towards stealth and hacking.

The writing is a standout for me, even without having spent much time on the main quest line. I find myself caring about many of the major characters, and several of the subplots and sidequests have been genuinely intriguing and surprising, especially when it dives into some of its deeper sci-fi roots.

Visually, the city is both beautiful and disgusting, exactly as a dystopian cyberpunk future should be. The lighting and environmental effects look great, and the game shows off some of the visual flair that RTX can provide.

Gameplay-wise, it can often feel like another stock-standard FPS, but as the game opens up and more options are available to you, it does get more interesting. You can often approach situations in a variety of ways, whether it's gunplay, melee, stealth, hacking, or some combination of them all. Different options will open up in many situations if you choose to min-max a particular skill. And without spoiling anything, besides the typical open-world FPS stuff, there are some unique sequences here and there that change things up. Nothing in the gameplay feels revolutionary so far, but it's varied and interesting.

All of those things being said, a few major detractors:

Many cutscenes and scripted sequences feel unfinished or broken. In one small sidequest, a car was scripted to drive off a bridge and explode; instead, it just sort of disappeared into thin air and an underwhelming fire effect appeared for a few seconds. Often, when an NPC drives you somewhere, they have no regard for pedestrians, mowing them down. At one point, I saved while an NPC was driving, and when I reloaded my save, I appeared in the drivers seat inside of them, staring at the back of their eyeballs. These kinds of bugs are most common in sidequests, but even in main storyline content I've seen some strange things. Most notably, during an early cutscene with Johnny Silverhand, his head just disappeared entirely for a scene.

Other strange things I've encountered: a Legendary shirt I found early in the game has pants attached to it for some reason, and the pantlegs stick out at a weird angle from my character's legs. When I call my car in busy traffic, it will often spawn in the middle of another car, just far away that the physics engine doesn't trigger until I get closer, and then the cars smash into each other. I see characters T-posing now and then, especially my own character when driving vehicles. On more than one occasion, I've been stuck in a cutscene state after a mission, unable to use weapons or take damage or climb ladders, and the only fix is to enter another cutscene; even restarting the game doesn't always work.

Keyboard and mouse controls are serviceable, but can be frustrating. You can remap most keys, but not all; get used to reaching for I or M to open your inventory or map. And some functions share a key via double-tap or long-press, and can't be remapped separately. This leads to a lot of accidentally dashing when I'm trying to move slowly, or mixing up long and short presses. And it would really benefit from a "match pace" option or button when following characters; there is a sort of automated walking speed that kicks in sometimes when following someone, but it frequently bugs out, forcing me to manually manage V's walking pace.

The menu system and inventory leave a lot to be desired. The sorting options for your inventory are somewhat limited, and can make it hard to find specific things. Trying to sell stacks of items can be annoying. The quantity can be hard to see over an item's icon. There are odd bugs and visual glitches, like item names not disappearing in the crafting menu, or text messages appearing out of order.

For a game that oozes visual style, the lack of cosmetic item slots is frustrating. A third-person mode would be nice, but to their credit, you can at least look down and see yourself, and go third-person when driving. The ability to customize your items would also be nice, since they often come in a variety of colors (maybe that's unlocked later on with better crafting skills? If not, it should be.)

All of these things having been said: I have enjoyed my time with the game so far, and will likely continue playing it. If you're thinking about playing it, and you can look past a lot of the messiness I have described, you'll probably have fun with it. But I sincerely hope that CDPR spends the next year or so fixing bugs and polishing the rough spots, because they are holding the better parts of the game back, and I genuinely feel like I would have gotten more out of the game if I waited to see if they step up.

Absolutely amazing. It does what Half-Life games do so well: curates many of the most impressive aspects of the medium into one complete package that pushes the artform to new heights. I lost count of the number of "♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥" moments I had during my playthrough, but I was saying it right up until the very end. Game Of The Year. Nothing else will be able to compete.

I'm about two hours in at the time of this writing. I've completed what you might consider the "tutorial" (which only took that long because I spent a lot of time screwing around with the game engine) and gotten into some actual melee combat. So far, I'm very impressed. There is a strong effort here to built a physics system that rivals Half-Life 2 in the way it pushes the boundaries of what you can do in a game, and it does that.

At one point I got my crowbar stuck in a wooden box, so I lifted it up and smacked the box with the baseball bat in my other hand to get it free and watched the box go flying. I climbed up a scaffolding and lifted myself up onto the roof of a structure, and watched the scaffolding collapse below me because I shoved it away and it tipped over. Then I dropped down, grabbed a 12-foot steel pipe that broke off the scaffolding with both hands and dragged it around with me. I tried to swing it around, but it was too heavy to move very quickly.

Note that there *are* some compromises that take getting used to. You have a physical body in-game, and while it does its best, it usually doesn't match your real body 1-to-1. Surprisingly, it didn't take much for me to get the hang of manipulating my VR-body as if it were another separate appendage. I still have some minor problems with getting melee weapons caught on my own head... I hope no one ever hands me a sword and expects me to use it in real life. In general, since your hands in-game are physical objects, they can get caught on things, they can get mangled, and without feedback beyond the usual rumble, it takes a little extra effort to be mindful of your appendages' position in space.

All these things said, there's one thing that needs to be very, very clear: That warning on the game page that this is an advanced VR game are there for a reason, if you don't have your VR legs or are susceptible to getting sick in VR, this game will almost certainly make you sick. Kinda like some people can't play FPS games without getting sick, some people won't be able to play VR games like this.

So far, though, this is a solid experience, and I would highly recommend it to anyone itching for a good VR experience that's clearly heavily inspired by Half Life 2.

11 hours in and I think about halfway through, I'm really enjoying this game! It scratches the itch for a sandbox construction sim game without requiring the extensive time commitment. The game starts simple and eases you into deeper resource management, but it never gets so complex that you feel overwhelmed, and it's really hard to work yourself into a dead-end. And even if you don't like how a round is going, levels only take 30-60 minutes to complete and the geography and layout are randomized, so it's no big deal to re-roll and try a different map.

Speaking as someone with a casual interest in real-life card games at best, and as someone who hasn't really gotten into digital card games at all, I'm actually really digging this game.

Several of the game's basic mechanics work to reduce the effect that random chance has on your game, such as the ability to redraw two cards at the start and another on every turn, or influencing RNG through the placement of your units. Matchmaking feels well-balanced as well, and even building decks is easy enough to get into. The majority of the matches I've lost, I felt it was not because my cards were outmatched or because RNG was against me, but because I was making poor decisions.

The game also includes a lengthy series of single-player challenges that build a puzzle around specific game mechanics for you to solve; if you enjoy solving puzzles, you'll find a few hours of entertainment in that alone, and learn how the different mechanics work in the process, which will guide you in how you'll build your decks.