Recent reviews by Excuritas

Hammerwatch is a hack and slash dungeon crawler similar to Gauntlet or Diablo. Solo or co-op, this action adventure guarantees a good time for you and your friends. Slay countless hordes of enemies and explore uniquely themed and aesthetically different environments which hide traps, vendors and secrets behind well thought puzzles.

- 4 player co-op dungeon crawling, local and online/LAN
- 6 unique classes each with their own skills and weapons
- Simplistic yet fun combat
- Massive waves of enemies to slay
- Harsh boss fights that will leave you on your toes
- Regardless of it’s simplicity, the game is quite challenging
- Play the game however you want thanks to adjustable difficulty through mutators
- Excellent, pixel perfect graphics style
- Huge maps with lots of secrets and places to explore
- Map editor to create custom campaigns and levels
- Energetic soundtrack

Checkout the soundcloud page for a preview![soundcloud.com]

While being fairly short and sometimes wonky to control, it’s still hell of a good time with friends or solo and well worth the asking price. I recommend this game to lovers of Gauntlet and people who enjoy hack and slash dungeon crawlers in general.

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege is a first-person multiplayer shooter that borrows from Counter Strike and hero shooters, mixing it together into a tactical, objective-based shootout where movement is slow and combat is fast. The game features asymmetrical gameplay where the teams are not always balanced in their abilities. Heavy emphasis is put on procedural environmental destruction allowing players to break certain structures by planting explosives, or shooting walls to make bullet holes or even larger ones to climb through.

+ Over 30 operators to choose from, based on real life counter terrorism units, each with their own unique weapons and gadgets.
+ No match will be the same thanks to the diverse cast of characters which is still getting expanded by Ubisoft, even 1.5 years after the game’s release.
+ Precise procedural destruction of most of the games floors and walls resulting in a tactical shooter like no other; simply running and gunning will only get you so far
+ Customization options for guns which also impact the way they operate. From a simple silencer to four different sights and weapon grips or fore grips, everything will change weapon behavior.
+ Pleasing graphics that look great and don’t require a monster PC to push 60 FPS or higher.
+ A fair use of micro-transactions where you can only buy skins and operators with real money but you can also unlock them through in-game currency.
+ You just can’t buy anything that gives you an advantage over other players.
+ Season pass owners get 1 week early access to new operators and all new operators in that year for free along with other skins and small benefits.
+ Maps are free for everyone, it doesn’t matter if you bought the season pass or not, everyone can play together.
+ Incredible sound engine that lets you hear precise enemy movement, like them walking into glass on the floor and other surfaces, or the exact direction where the steps are coming from. This is making good use of 5.1 surround sound or just good stereo headphones.
+ Music is fitting the game’s tone very well you just don’t hear much of it since it is only playing at the beginning and at the end of rounds which in turn is making you not really care for it all.

- Lag compensation, netcode and tickrate is still broken and you sometimes die out of nowhere while your enemy could clearly see you. (This is being worked on and hopefully fixed in the near future)
- Multiplayer against other players or against AI are the only two modes, there is no campaign which I think is a missed opportunity.
- Steep learning curve that can be very frustrating for beginners since regular players of the game will know exactly what walls can be shot through, what angles work best and how to quickly peek corners to make the best use of the sometimes broken netcode.
- Unlocking operators with in-game currency can take a long time based on your willingness to spend time with the game and how good you are. Just stay away from the starter edition or the game will be even more grindy since each base operators cost much much more than they normally would and you will be unable to upgrade to the standard edition once you bought the starter.

While this iteration of the series is vastly different than it’s predecessors, I think it’s a solid addition to the series. Rainbow Six Siege is very unique in what it does and we have yet to see a game like it. I recommend it to fans of SWAT 4, Insurgency, and generally anyone who enjoys or is interested in tactical first person games where you have to be cautious of your surroundings, be aware of your enemies abilities, and a strong emphasis on teamwork.

As someone who doesn't normally enjoy visual novels, I was hesitant at first. Sure, the setting and the anime aesthetic appealed to me, but there was a big chance that this game would be just another VN hyped up by its fanatic anime fans. But damn… was I surprised by what I found! The game managed to change my mind pretty much instantly, not because of its art style or its soundtrack (though they are huge contributors towards that), but because of the overall feel and well presented atmosphere.

As always, these are my own opinions and experiences, please consider reading other reviews too!

Just some minor things that i still want to mention just to spice things up.

While this game features a form of gameplay, and I’m very glad that it does; the mixing of drinks can be a bit repetitive at times. No wonder some people say that you should play it in sessions and take breaks, just like the protagonist. The problem is the fixed number of recipes at your disposal and the way the system works, you have the initial 24 drinks but that’s it really, no new ones will be introduced during your playthrough which is a missed opportunity. A double-click option would’ve been nice to add the ingredients directly instead of dragging every single one of them. Checkpoints are often very far apart from each other which can result in frustration since you have to possibly play huge chunks of the game again, if you fu-ck up or want to do something differently.

I’m truly glad to have the bartending as a way of interacting with the characters in the game, without this feature, the game wouldn’t be half as engaging as it is right now. Mixing drinks together is fun and thankfully doesn’t require a crazy tutorial or anything like that. Simply mix together the ingredients based on the recipes and you're done with the exceptions of big drinks and a few others. Manage Jill’s home between days to spent your hard-earned cash for silly stuff or save up to pay the rent. You even get tiny bits of lore in her smartphone and the ability to save/load, which can also be done during work-breaks.

What I think is the most important part is the need to satisfy the customers taste through mixing alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks together from scratch. You are often asked to guess the right drink for the right customer, luckily the game has a built-in list of 24 available recipes to help you with that. Some clients require you to be quick, remember their favourite drinks or even guess the right one that could trigger new events and story bits. This is the main way to influence the game's progression and the ending that you will get, so be sure to try something different then the game is telling you. Just pay attention to your customer and what they order, it might not always be what they really want or need! A character is depressed and orders something sweet? Add some alcohol to let him forget about their troubles thanks to optional recipes where you can add as much of it as you want.

VA-11 Hall-A’s story revolves around the everyday life of bartender Jill and her customers as well as her boss and co-worker Gillian and many others. A diverse cast of characters who are relatable, believable and interesting in one way or another and have their own problems and worries in life that you can be a part of. Even though you don't have any choices during the conversations itself, the discussions are still pretty engaging and well presented making you crave for more.

The visuals are reminiscent of old Japanese adventure games for the PC-98, the first visual novels one could say. Everything is more detailed though and gives this a very modern look and feel. Good looking characters also make sure that you are interested in finding out more about them and exactly why they chose your bar of all places.

Fitting, satisfying style of music fitting a cyberpunk city so incredibly well and don’t ask me why but some songs even reminded me of games of my childhood like Zone of the Enders, Final Fantasy VII, Breath of Fire III and countless others. The soundtrack is certainly one of the bigger contributors to VA-11 Hall-A’s success.

https://garoad.bandcamp.com/album/va-11-hall-a-second-round

VA-11 Hall-A is an incredible 10-20 hour adventure that is without a doubt one of the best Visual Novels currently available on Steam. This game is an amazing and mature experience and I’m glad that I finally got around to playing it, and do hope a sequel is in the works!

I recommend it to anyone who is interested in Visual Novels with lots of text. Fans of the cyberpunk will also find great value in this beautiful game.

“Time to mix drinks and change lives!”

Jotun is one of those indie games that you tend to ignore at first since very few people actually talked about it, but once you finally play it you are instantly drawn in by the beauty that this game truly is. It’s been lying around in my library for at least five months, and after playing it I was shocked that I hadn’t touched it earlier. I was hesitant thinking all it had to offer was a couple of really hard bosses, but oh my god, I couldn't have been more wrong...

These are my own experiences and opinions, please consider reading my other reviews too!

Let’s begin with the things that bothered me so we can get to the good stuff.

The mini map doesn't show your current position which can get confusing in more twisted areas of the game. It’s good for orientation, but constantly having to keep track of my current position, I often found myself going back to the entrance to start over and get my bearings. Continuing the game after closing it, accidentally or because you want to take a break, makes you respawn in a hub-area, which means you’ll have to travel through the larger areas again from scratch; it’s a bit frustrating. Background textures seem pixelated in certain areas, though it was rarely noticeable.

Jotun has a stylized hub-area which shows you the complete map of each area, along with what you’ve discovered and have yet to find. Secrets are only shown after you’ve either discovered them, or after the area boss is defeated.
There are nine different areas to explore, each with its own boss, enemies, and environmental hazards, as well as different means to traverse the twisted landscapes, making each area vastly distinct from the next. The often huge areas can feel very linear, but do offer some hidden paths that uncover secrets and upgrades that really help when it’s time to fight the boss. This game makes you feel small and weak thanks to clever use of the camera zooming in and out. You are a measly human compared to the immense nordic gods, but you have the power to prove them wrong.

The tools that you have at your disposal are two attacks, a dodge roll, and a few skills. Quick attacks do little damage, but your strong attack hits like a truck and needs to be charged for a few seconds, locking your movement, during which you can aim in the direction you want the attack to go. The core focus is the combat, and it can be pretty harsh. Watch your enemy's movement until you’ve learned their attack patterns, plan accordingly, only to be then crushed as each boss changes their moveset as their fights progress. There are a few things to make your journey easier but they can also be avoided completely for the hardcore players out there. 6 limited skills can be used during each bossfight to bring some relief; use a timed shield that blocks all incoming attacks, speed up your movement and attack speed for some seconds or just increase your strong attacks attack power to make every hit a devastating blow. Shadows of incoming attacks show you where they will land, giving you enough time to move away to avoid getting hit in the face. There are also hidden health upgrades which can be tricky to find.

Dieing an inglorious death, the protagonist Thora get's a second chance to change her fate to get into Valhalla by proving herself to the gods in fighting hostile norse elementals.
Jotuns story is completely based on norse mythology and is as close to the real thing as possible, which is really neat. Many names will be familiar if you ever played games that used said mythology. The story is told in a minimalistic way and you get to learn why the protagonist is the way she is in a believable way. After defeating each boss you get a bit of her past as a reward which is a great way of taking a break after you finally defeated those tough creatures and you just stand there and listen to her beautiful voice. The narration is fully voiced in old norse(old viking style) with subtitles in english and even though i can’t understand a word of it, it was so amazingly fitting for every situation which made me craving for more.

I really had my doubts about the graphics since the hand drawn yet minimalistic boss designs, looked like a child drew them, but I was wrong again. The art works really well once you see it in motion, and they really did an incredible job with the animations overall. The background is very clean but more detailed, and works nicely together nicely with the "amateurish" drawings of objects, bosses and enemies. Once you feel the music, sounds and animations in action, you’ll realize the devs knew what they were doing, it just works!

Orchestrated, appropriately epic music fitting every situation is also one of the strong points of the game. One special thing I like to mention is the dynamic presentation of music increasing in volume and variety while the camera zooms out to show you upcoming areas or just objectives you have accomplished. I just stood there and let the atmosphere sink in while listening to the well made music.

Checkout the bandcamp page for a preview![music.maxll.ca]

Don’t let the minimalistic graphics fool you, this is an excellent game for those who enjoy good boss fights and challenging gameplay. While the game is only about four to six hours long, the boss rush mode will keep you occupied for even longer. I recommend it to anyone who enjoyed similar games like Shadow of the Colossus, Titan Souls, or Furi. Fans of norse mythology will also find great value in this game as it’s world filled with legends and mythological beings.

Anarcute is a mix of Pikmin and Katamari that focuses on creating violent riots with adorable human-like animals that fight against evil capitalists that threaten the freedom of us all! It combines a very cute art style that is minimalistic but very effective, almost completely destroyable levels, and a fresh take on crowd-based combat.

Each level starts with just a couple of people but you quickly build up an horde of charming rioters who are then used to fight the corrupt police. There are four different countries to liberate and each of them is divided in five to eight levels and one boss.

Unlock skills as you grow in numbers and tear down even buildings or collect cars and everything else around you to throw it at the enemy! You collect coins from completing levels to unlock and swap skills outside of missions. Free new animal species and customize your army to your heart’s desire and pick only the animals you are interested in. You can even change their costume if you get an S on every level of a country.

The game can be pretty challenging at times, but you get used to it real quick. Stealth levels for example feel a bit overwhelming at times since you barely have any rioters, but it's manageable after you get the hang of it. Skipping difficult sections is also an option, if you simply don't care about the cosmetic unlocks. The controls and the camera movement feel a bit wacky at times, but it's not too bad.

The soundtrack is definitely one of the strongest, if not the strongest point of this game and it's fitting the theme of the game so well; they just nailed it. Each song is bound to make you smile and feel good, and it even makes you care for these little critters. Especially within the main menu, the music is so awesome that I stayed in there for far longer than I was supposed to.

Checkout the bandcamp page for a preview![anarcute.bandcamp.com]

The game’s length is about 5-10 hours which might be too little for the price asked. I recommend getting it with a discount of under $10 which I feel is just the right price.

Regardless of the price, I recommend this game to anyone who enjoyed Pikmin, Katamari, or just wants to have a good time with a very passionate and cute little game.

GoNNER is a very harsh procedurally-generated 2D platformer with roguelike elements. It borrows bastion-like world building where your surroundings disappear behind you and generate in front of you. Thanks to its nature, it’s a very challenging game, almost unfair at times.

+ Very unique design choice which is almost disturbing, discomforting even, but at the same time cute, and this is reinforced by the rapidly changing color palette
+ Lovely animations for enemies as well as the characters; cute but also evil
+ Very fitting music that is as disturbing as the game’s style
+ Diverse array of masks which will affect your playstyle. (eg. Small mask with 5 hearts, vs a Big mask with 3 hearts, but your jump attack hits harder, etc.)
+ Dark Souls-like mechanic where you have to collect your weapon and mask back after you get hit. Invincibility protects you from dying for 5 seconds, but if you fail to get it back and get hit, it's game over.
+ Unique looking levels with their own monster designs
+ Interesting and challenging boss fights
+ A good variety of weapons and useful cooldown-based power-ups shown on your back which you can unlock for later runs (Ammo bag for when you run out, a rapid fire mode, huge explosions around you, and more)
+ After you die, you can either retry at the beginning or go back to a hub area where you can choose between unlocked weapons, masks and power-ups to try different combinations
+ Currency rewarded for every 5 enemies killed in a row. Music will speed up until you lose your combo, adding to the tension/excitement. It’s used to buy things in occasional shops or to give you a continue, which requires a lot of them.
+ Very fluid gameplay, controller recommended (as no aiming is required)

- Definitely not a game for casuals, this game is hard as hell!
- No tooltips for power-ups or weapons
- You can't aim in any direction up or down or diagonal, you are limited to firing your weapons
horizontally while enemies can come from everywhere, this is primarily what makes this game so challenging, but it could be very frustrating for some.
- Mysterious story that you have to figure out yourself since nobody is talking in an understandable language
- In a very rogue-like fashion, there is no continue, once you die you have to start from the very first level. There is an exception however, if you collect enough currency you can use that to get a continue, so very skilled players that can keep their combos up, are rewarded.

This right here is one of the more unique and challenging rogue-likes currently available on Steam. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in difficult video games or just rogue-like platformers in general, people who just want pure fun however, should stay away.

Luckily, Prey is another AAA game for 2017, devoid of the usual anti-consumer bullsh-it (Season Pass, Micro-transactions, etc). Prey is a spiritual successor to System Shock, and while many people keep moaning about how good Prey 2 could've been, I had a really good time from start to finish. That said it likely isn’t for everyone, so read further.

These are my own experiences and opinions, please consider reading other reviews too!

So let's start out with the bad things I encountered during my playthrough.

The launch build overall was very well done, a certain improvement over Dishonored 2, though I did still suffer some FPS drops during my playthrough. It might just be my system, so look to other sources for more on performance. One notable bug I found was that if you alt+tab out of the game, you have a high chance that the cursor (that you would have otherwise show only in the game’s menus), stays up on-screen during normal gameplay, only to be fixed with a restart. Both issues will likely be fixed in time, so treat them as minor; my experience was fine otherwise.

There is no New Game+, but the game still wants you to replay it, but unfortunately thanks to its structure, the game has no real replayability at all (unlike Dishonored 1/2) and it becomes insanely repetitive after just two playthroughs, so I’d highly suggest trying to do everything you want within your first two runs. Enemy design is only good the first time around and mimics for example simply stop being scary as they were in first playthrough, and higher difficulties only make the enemies tougher. Once you have explored everything, you have seen everything there is to see, there's simply nothing else to do other than farming achievements or playing out the choices you didn’t in your first run, resulting in different endings.

The game offers you a set of many, vastly different and creepy, yet atmospheric areas that are waiting to be explored. Required Metroidvania-style back-tracking makes sure that you visit new sections of old areas that were previously inaccessible. This is one huge atmospheric space-station with narrow corridors and dark hallways and as such, it's so big you will often feel overwhelmed by it. The areas are so detailed, making exploration rewarding both for the fun of it, and for the extra loot.

The game gives us a silent protagonist like Half Life and the story is mostly told through audio logs, e-mails, and voice-transmissions from characters in the game, similar to the Bioshock games while the game refrains from using any cutscenes at all.

In a typical Deus Ex fashion, every obstacle in Prey can be solved in multiple ways depending on your playstyle and the upgrades you choose. See a locked Door? Find a way around, hack it, find the key-card, mimic an object to fit through the window, or even try to break it open with sheer force... it's up to you, allowing for a ton of freedom. Even objectives can often be finished in various ways and you will be confronted with choices that will influence your playthrough so it is strongly recommended to think about your actions before rushing anything. Prey sometimes even requires you to think outside the box to overcome certain hurdles.

While the weapon variety is fun, there are only seven weapons and four different grenade-types in the game, and if you refuse to use psi-powers, the gameplay will feel a bit repetitive and your options are minimized. Weapons like the GLOO Cannon are very fun to use since they allow you to reach pretty much any place that you can't reach with normal jumping, and the Huntress Boltcaster lets you shoot foam bullets to distract enemies or at displays through windows to open locked doors. Weapon upgrades feel a bit stiff since you can only upgrade things like power, handling, recoil, reload-speed and ammo capacity, but it's just enough to satisfy.

Prey features extensive RPG elements such as inventory management and sophisticated character development. Just like Deus Ex, the inventory lets you carry everything you want until it's full, with no silly weight restrictions or disadvantages to stamina consumption. Another great thing about this is that there is no limit to ammo or any items in general, until you run out of inventory space (which can be increased), allowing flexibility in what you want to carry. Besides all kinds of food, the game also lets you gather many things that would be considered rubbish in other games, but they’re actually of use here...

Recycling is one of the biggest parts of this game that immediately fascinated me. It allows you to turn anything, and I mean ANYTHING you can move around or pick up, into valuable materials needed for crafting (organic, mineral, synthetic, and exotic materials). If you have the right blueprints, you can then use a fabricator to turn these materials back into ammo, weapons, and even neuromods (the currency needed to level up your skills). Crafting feels a little bit underwhelming since you are presented with a four by three grid which just gets auto filled every time you want to craft something, and I think that's a missed opportunity to make that aspect more interesting, similar to crafting in Minecraft.

Customize the game to your desired playstyle thanks to the 6 skill-trees, letting you choose from a range of passive skills and psychic-powers which will greatly change the gameplay. Prey lets you scan your enemies to find out their weaknesses and additionally learn their abilities to make them your own. Chipsets give you the opportunity to fine-tune it even more thanks to small passive upgrades like gaining some health back on a sneak attack, increased resistance to various elements and even a chance to get more materials from recycling. Psi-powers on the other hand are not only strong but also provide quite an impact on gameplay.

Aside from mimics that will turn into random objects and make you be much more aware of your surroundings, the game will throw a wide array of terrifying creatures at you. Thanks to the combat, the game lets you consider your approach on different enemies. Hack robots, let aliens fight each other or create your own, everything is possible.

Since Prey features interconnected areas instead of an open world, they have gone for a much more dense, realistic approach. The graphics feel good and textures are alright even on closer inspection of walls and furniture, seemingly thanks to CryEngine. Little things lying everywhere, debris flying around in zero-gravity, and plenty of furniture to play with. It's not the best looking game out there, but it's certainly decent enough to get immersed in its sci-fi world.

While the soundtrack for this game is pretty good, it only has 4-5 songs that stuck out to me. Mick Gordon composed most of the tracks and Raphael Colantonio & Matt Piersall as well as Ben Crossbones were also involved in some of them. The songs all share a similar flaw... they are just too short which can result in situations where the music is done playing but the action still goes on or situations where the music plays and nothing is happening at all, it just feels a bit sloppy.

For those looking for a pure horror experience, or non-stop action, this just isn’t your game, but fans of Bioshock, System Shock, Dead Space, Deus Ex and the like, should enjoy this 13-30 hour experience. Exploring the multifaceted space station, messing with enemies and your surroundings in your very own way, all driven by the intriguing story; it definitely seems to me like one of the best games of 2017!

Remember when games were released in a finished state? No season-pass, no crazy pre-order bullsh.it, no micro transactions of any sort... While Nier: Automata had some minor release problems, the PC release is still the best version between the two on offer. The customization in the options menu is enough to satisfy people, with fully rebindable controller layouts, extensive camera adjustment, and if you have a rather good rig then you're ready to enjoy the game how it's meant 2B.

Let's look at the bad things first, which I think can be fixed later down the line. The game launched with a fullscreen bug that caused the game to render at a resolution lower than the one set while in true fullscreen mode, which was fixed with solutions from Borderless Gaming and a number of modders. Apart from that, texture/object pop-in is equivalent to the PS4 version, with grass and trees often appearing abruptly in the city area, though monsters aren’t affected. Oddly, the pre-rendered cutscenes are locked at 900p 30fps, a shame, but the story remains gripping nonetheless!

Now let's talk about some points that make this game my new favorite game ever. Nier: Automata's combat system is a perfect mix of Action RPG, Bullet Hell and Shmup as well as many other genres. The hack and slash combat feels just fluid thanks to every button press having an actual impact on what your character does as well as the well done combo system. The game seamlessly transitions between theses different genres and camera angles in a really interesting way.

The difficulty has some flaws but is overall well done. Normal feels too easy at some points and Hard basically two-shots you in every situation and requires you really get the dodge down. Other players corpses are a good indicator when something challenging is coming up, and they can even be revived to fight alongside you. Just like the souls-series, you drop a corpse at the point of death which can be retrieved to collect some xp as well as some of your skill chips. Die twice without collecting it and you can say goodbye to some of your skill chips. Other then leveling up through battle, you can equip passive skill chips that further enhance your gameplay. Regenerating health outside of battles, increased evade distance, or even a certain chance to reflect damage back at the attacker; there are many ways to individualize your playstyle.

In terms of graphics, the game is mighty fine but some could say it looks outdated while it is clearly not. The fantastic looking post-apocalyptic world design just adds to that fact that this game can be very pretty at some points. Enemies might look the same early on, but there’s quite a bit of diversity across the 60+ enemies you’ll find across your journey.

To talk about some positive technical aspects of the game, it runs well at a capped 60fps with a decent rig, with only minor drops for some in areas have large amounts of enemies. Performance can be improved substantially by lowering the Global Illumination samples with the help of a certain mod; a notable bump with almost zero visual difference. There are no loading times between the different areas of the game, only when using the fast travel system (no more than 5-10 seconds).

As well as the nicely done English voiceover, they also provide the option of using the original Japanese VO, something not every game coming to the west does and is very welcome. In my opinion, Japanese voice with English subtitles is the way to go for this one, as they manage to make the game feel much more impactful and emotional than English will ever be able to achieve.

And now for one of the best aspects, the magnificent soundtrack. The game often shifts dynamically between 7 different variations (instrumental, vocal, 8-bit, etc) of each song to suit different scenarios in a way that I’ve never experienced in a videogame, it's just beautiful. There are even special songs for every completed side-quest based on your choices; how cool is that?

The real meat of the game however, lies in the story. Put simply, planet Earth is overrun by machines that made the last of mankind flee to the moon. They then build androids to combat and ultimately rid the Earth of those machines and return home. Working for the project known as YoRHa, you play as the android 2B, who is supposed to be calm and composed, and fight alongside your companion 9S, a reconnaissance android with a much more emotional personality.

While I can't go into details at the risk of spoiling it, I urge you to try to experience all 26 endings (A-Z), or at least the first five (A-E). The game does a bad job of letting people know that there is much more beyond just the first playthrough. If you don't have any questions after your first run, then I really don’t know what you were doing... Each playthrough changes various aspects of the game and story, and you don’t even get to see 7 of the game’s 17 chapters unless you stick around till at least the third playthrough. A reasonable ask, as I genuinely don’t think you’ll be bored of it at that point, just don’t spend too much time on the crazy sidequests as you’ll get the chapter select after the third run to go back and do everything you forgot (plus achievement hunting).

While having some minor flaws, all of this combined makes this one of the greatest games ever made. It's easy to ignore this game if you don’t think you’ll be good at action rpgs, bullet hell, and shmups, or if you think it looks outdated, but there’s so much more to it than that... So just try to get over the little problems and play this masterpiece!

Nier: Automata is absolutely a must-play for anyone that considers themselves a “gamer”, there’s just so much here to enjoy.

I’ll end this with a fitting quote from Jim Sterling:

"Nier itself is important. It is, as far as I’m concerned, historically significant in terms of its design and the way in which it uses the framework of a videogame to tell an evolving story.

If history forgets this game, then fu.ck history."

This right here is an underrated gem from the pitch black depths of steam. Initially I was very skeptical considering the first Evoland lasted only about 4 hours and was horribly linear. I liked it, but there was something missing... a great story!

Luckily this time around, Evoland 2 got it right! The story lasts between 15 and 25 hours, and many new mechanics have been added (trading cards, time travel, power upgrades, etc). There’s plenty of game-related references and fun easter eggs that should please any experienced gamer, and there are some TV and Anime references as well!

Evoland 2 is blessed with a great story about time travel and it's consequences, through which you’ll meet many different characters each with their own backgrounds and ambitions. There’s a big world to explore, minimizing the linearity that plagued the first game. Each of the time periods feature their own beautiful, hand-crafted pixel or 3D graphics, different styles of gameplay, with soundtracks to match! Hack and slash, turn-based strategy, Bejewled-style match 3, beat-em-up, you name it. Many more waiting to surprise you!

In terms of pacing the game had some problems with 2-3 areas dragging on for far too long and I had to look up some puzzles, but beyond that there’s little left to complain about! I couldn’t find and bugs or real problems throughout my playthrough.

Evoland 2, A Slight Case of Spacetime Continuum Disorder uniquely combines so many different genres and ideas in a way that no other game has really done before, and i can recommend it to anyone who is interested in an RPG/Hybrid that is doing something that no other game has done yet. Solid gameplay, a great story, and videogame history all over the place; what’s not to love about that?

DOOM is a first-person shooter about killing demons, demons, and more demons… and try to save humanity I guess. Much like the original Doom games, not even 5 seconds in and you’re already shooting! There’s no cover system, it’s all about running around like a maniac killing everything in sight. This is what Doom 3 should've been.

+ Executions (“Glory Kills”) with over 30 different animations; similiar to brutal doom.
+ Great level design with large, well designed levels that often freely allow for backtracking.
+ Tons of secrets with early weapon unlocks and other fun things.
+ Nostalgic easter eggs, As expected from ID/Bethesda.
+ Awesome soundtrack that sticks to the roots of the series; a mix of good old metal with electronic elements.
+ Great aesthetic and visual fidelity. Not quite Frostbyte-level, but still very very good.
+ Classic pickup-based health system; no automatic regen.
+ Good enemy variety; at least 15 varieties.
+ Great weapon variety. Returning classics + some new additions, with 2 mods and a set of upgrades for each (like Wolfenstein TNO).
+ Carry all of your weapons at once and quickly switch between them (sadly not in the multiplayer).
+ No weapon reloading. I pressed R anyway for the first 30 minutes out of habit.
+ Fast load times.
+ Suit upgrades as incentive to find all the secrets.
+ Great story for a Doom game; good ending too!
+ Runs smoothly at 60+ fps. Usually held a full 60 at ultra on my R9 380.
+ No bugs, no crashes.
+ Good ol’ power-ups (Quad Damage, Haste, Invicibility, etc).
+ 10-20 Hour Campaign. Largely depending on how much long you hint for secrets.
+ 13 Doom classic levels, filled instead with the new weapons and monsters.

- OpenGL, so Steam broadcasting doesn’t work.
- No soundtrack is available to buy at the time of the review.
- Lack of bosses, though the ones there are well done.
- Functional, fast-paced Multiplayer that’s taken far too much inspiration from the likes of Call of Duty. The full game offers more variety than the beta as well as SnapMap for a touch of creativity, but the core problems and imbalances still stand.
- The Season Pass is said to only expand upon the multiplayer; I’d have loved more single-player content.

A solid addition to the Doom-series and a worthy reboot of the classic titles.
Recommended to every fan of old-shool FPS such as Shadow Warrior, Duke Nukem and of course the classic Doom and Doom II.