Recent reviews by [ĽÊGΣŇÐÆŔҰ]™ Nemo

what makes us human? what is ones purpose in life? how can we better society as a whole, even in the face of the eons of time stretching before us? ..... what would you do in the moments/days/weeks/years before death if you knew when youd die? these are questions The Talos principle seeks for you to explore. what starts as a simple "solve the puzzle" game quickly launches itself into the very questions philosophers have debated for thousands of years... and what will be debated in thousands of years after us. it embraces that all life is in fact finite, that it will one day end. but it also asks you to find your own purpose for yourself, come to your own answers.... to find yourself.

8 years ago this game came out... and in all that time i dont think this game has aged poorly. in all that time its message has yet to stop resonating, and i believe it will continue to resonate with everyone, while yes it resonates in different ways to different people its core message remains the same: life, and humanity, is fleeting. that everything can and does eventually end. but that does not mean it is without purpose, without meaning, and without beauty. one may not know ones purpose, may question it, may even rage at the idea that one lacks a purpose compared to everyone around you. may see the futility and despair in life..... may not even see the inherent beauty in all that is life. but.. i believe that everyone will end up finding some form of purpose. whether itll be to make others lives better, to create something from your own existence, i cannot say. im not you.... i cannot make your decisions for you....

everyone questions something. whether it is to the purpose of their life, their gender, or something else. everyone has doubts but as a wise man once said: "Doubt is useful in small amounts, but too much of it leads to apathy and confusion. No, don't doubt everything. QUESTION everything. That's the real trick."

in this stage of my life... the talos principle causes me to look back. to question to wonder, to solve what problems i see. it also deeply reminds me that... life... is precious.... that it is short and fleeting. and we must do what is best for us, even if we arent entirely certain what that is.



it is truly a magnificent, and timeless game.

ive played this game since its days as a flash game on Kong. highly recommend, very zen but also challenging. also recommend the other games of the series.

very zen. highly recommend the entire series.

ive been playing this game for years. even outside of steam. and i can say without doubt: this is litterally one of best mmo's ive ever played. decent graphics for its time. a great story, enjoyable gameplay. it is by far one of my most recommended games of all time, with warframe and DDO being close to it.

of course lets cover each of the major criteria i grade games by: these are gameplay, graphics design, sound design, story, character customization/progression, game economy, player base, controls, bugs, miscellaneous annoyances, and micro-transactions. the last of these are only listed in games where such a thing exists.

gameplay: 7/10
i legitimately enjoy playing the game. the gameplay is equally fast paced but also slow enough that you can take your time planning your next moves. or just wander the game world and just enjoy the scenery taking your time exploring. most quests, unlike modern or classic mmo's arent "go here kill this many of x", while those exist they tend more towards optional sidequests that you purchase from npc's for additional gold. in addition while there are fewer quests in total compared to your more traditional mmo. almost every quest is unique in some way through story or otherwise. more on this under the story section. in general however the gameplay is solid, for its time, and is easy to learn but hard to master. most skills follow a logic similar to rock paper scissors where most skills have another skill that you can use to counter. this is most obviously seen in the 5 basic "skills": normal attack, defense, smash, counterattack and windmill: normal attacks cancel smash, but is blocked by the other 3 in some fashion. defense increases your defensive stats, stops debuffs from landing, and generally is good vs ranged users due to its defense increase, but is broken by smash. smash is basically a heavy attack, it deals more damage but is slower, it breaks defense but in general is blocked by most other skills. counterattack takes time to start up but upon being hit by a melee attack you redirect the damage to your foe, it blocks most physical hits. windmill: a wide sweeping area of effect attack: it breaks through counter but fails vs defense, and due to its range generally stops the attacks of smash, you can also use it automatically to counter upon being knocked down which makes it a great get off me tool. these 5 base skills color most of the other skills in the game and generally speaking are the baseline of most others.

graphics design: 7/10
okay ill admit the games graphics arent the greatest all the time. it shows its age and its anime aesthetic may not appeal to everyone, outside of that though many locations feel unique and the character graphics for npcs are pretty steller. it wont win any awards compared to say the likes of modern games, but taking into consideration how old the game is, its pretty decent.

Sound Design: 5/10
the soundtrack is actually pretty steller, some early areas do have a strange "synth" sound to it, and earlier soundtracks have this as well but the later areas get better treatment. skills do have generic sound effects but they arent terrible. id say overall its middling.

story: 8/10
this was one of the first mmos that i have played with actual story. every npc, every quest, every location has its own unique story. each npc feels unique, and each has their own personal story.

character customization/progression: while at the start a player characters appearance is kinda limited, each character can wear and equip whatever they desire to suit them the most. giving a decent level of customization even as a free to play user. character progression is influenced by skill use. if you use a skill you earn exp for it, when you level up you gain ap, which you can spend to upgrade skills which permanently raise your stats. every 2 weeks or so you can "rebirth" your character resetting them to level 1, but keeping all skills at their current level. what you wear is your class essentially. every rebirth you can also choose a particular class to gain a bonus to training skills of that class.

game economy: 3/10
okay. ill admit. the in game economy is... pretty bad. due to how common the in game currency is, and due to the rarity of the more hyper rare stuff, gold is basically worthless in the player market. thankfully however genearelly premium items are tradeable so thats kinda helpful. generally gold comes easy and passes easily.

player base: very helpful, old and experienced, generally friendly and tightnit.

controls: id like to call it unique, but its still fairly solid. it does take a little bit getting used to but eventually it becomes second nature.

bugs: okay. im not gonna lie: the game has quite a few bugs. years of updates with spaghetti code with bandaid style patches. its not surprising. so far i have not found a fatal bug, the game doesnt crash often, however sometimes.... weird stuff happens. for instance in some areas you can go into areas out of bounds or occasionally if you use a certain specific skill and get knocked down you become unable to use skills until you can reuse that skill. again, slight annoyances at worst but they do exist and id be lying if i didnt say that they didnt.

miscellaneous annoyances: sometimes the world feels a bit empty, especially on the continent of iria. sometimes the servers are empty except for a single channel out of 7. generally dungeons are samey and get boring after a while. grinding skills can also get boring at times but thats just what happens in mmos in general. the descriptions of some items refer to an old premium package that no longer exists, because it was made free to all players, these descriptions havent been updated.

micro-transactions: due to the game being made by nexon, the microtransactions can be pretty hard to a wallet, and most are gachas. the only thing worth it are pets, as they have extra inventory space. everything else is not super useful.

been playing for years, and i keep coming back to it. it is a small niche game with a small but extremely dedicated community who love the game. its fair for free to play users, allowing them to work on being able to unlock things they wish to unlock for themselves.

seriously great game. very zen and fun.

great game absolutely fun as hell, challenging but fun. only problem is if you have a controller plugged in/installed it will ALWAYS want to play using that controller. as my controller is unable to be unplugged nor used (for a variety of reasons), the game NEVER allows me to play using a mouse, doesnt even offer an option to do allow me to switch over to do so and it doesnt seem the dev knows .... or cares as this appears to be basically 4 pages of the discussions while id recommend this game it is only because its fun to play. otherwise if your like me you will be unable to play.

to MR. Andy Wallace i realize its a bit late, but perhaps you could offer an option for the players to choose to select which control method they use for the game?

overall 9/10 but still gotta give negative review due to lack of playability.

now then for all of those who see the "doesnt work with keyboard/mouse" reviews i will say: if you dont have a controller plugged in it WILL work using the mouse. but otherwise itll just default straight to the controller =/

Spacechem. a very simple puzzle/logic game that is so simple its surprisingly NOT a flash game... and despite its name it has very little to do with actual Chemistry OR Space. =p it just uses both for visual themes and to provide a backdrop for the storyline. however if you still hate science in all ways you may find that its usage of the atoms to be dislikable at best. nonetheless even if Steven Hawking or Einstein or even Michio Kaku played this game they would find their science expertise as not a factor to actually play the game. =p you dont need to know science to play. but if you do know it and you love science then its just an added plus as you smile to yourself.

its simplicity however is trumped by its sheer mindnumbingly difficult puzzles. although it starts out easy it only progresses to become more and more difficult to the point where your problem solving skills are put to the greatest test. overall score i give a 10/10.

this game although has 2d graphics it doesnt need anything beyond that as anything more would detract from the game. not enhance it.

gameplay starts with the simple stuff and has a nice progression showing you the basic rules at the start. by the time you reach the third area that tutorial for the most part ends, only showing up when something new comes into play. however every level is for the most part the same with just a new twist on the solution. the game makes it so that when you beat a level you feel smart. it then shows you the rankings and you know just how "smart" you really are.

the soundtrack admittedly is just 3 songs and although they dont stand out, that is for the most part a plus as your full attention should be on the puzzle at hand and not on some blaring soundtrack that has no ability to fit with the game like many flash games. overall very nice to listen to if you do choose to listen. at times upbeat at other times dark.

story: although there is fairly very little it is a nice addition to the game and just adds some depth that is lacking in a few games of this genre. although i havent beaten it the character is at least remotely connectable and not just some random silent protaginist that the creator just makes it seem as if its you in only the partial, this is even IF you dont see very much of him except once in a while. thankfully you can view all previous bits of story so it can be reread to refresh your memory.

overall id highly recommend this game to almost everyone. "almost" being the keyword. if you hate anything related to science this game is not for you as the games theme is very much related, in addition if you ABSOLUTELY HATE being put to the test with each level then again this game is not for you as each level after the tutorial just becomes difficult, even IF you know what your doing it still takes time to figure out the puzzle. Logic is a must for this game. otherwise youll NEVER be able to beat it. even then after logging 19 hours on it im only just now reaching the 15th level. in other words about 20% through the game.

pros: simple, completely logic based, nice progression.

cons: almost nothing except the difficulty may not be for some.