Recent reviews by Pyetech

Yooka-Laylee is an inconsistent game, but overall, it manages to successfully capture the feel of the Banjo-Kazooie series. It certainly fills the niche it set out to--just don't expect much iteration on 1998's gameplay, for better or for worse.

The 5 worlds are sizeable and well-stocked with content, though the concept of expanding a world seems like a strange mechanic. If possible, you might as well expand a world before entering it for the first time.

The minigames and puzzles are sometimes repetitive, though for the most part, there's enough variety. Few are interesting enough to replay for fun, however, and some are uninspired duds. Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts suffered from this kind of by-the-numbers challenge design. There are a few difficulty spikes at certain challenges or boss battles, but most are not hard. The main punishments for failure are the long transition times and having to replay easy segments before getting back to the difficult parts.

I found that the puzzle mechanics weren't always as intuitive as I felt they should have been. It can be hard to differentiate between glass and ice, for example, and you are sometimes left trying all your moves to see which one causes an interaction.

The character designs are great, for the most part. Form usually follows function, so you can tell that some thought was put into them. The dialogue did not strike me as particularly noteworthy, however. Like most Rare games, it does not take itself very seriously and often breaks the fourth wall.

New moves are unlocked in each world, so if you want to collect everything, you will have to backtrack. I know some people found this frustrating, but I was mentally prepared. A certain move that you acquire near the end of the game--flight--seems unnecessary, and harms the platforming gameplay. Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie only allowed it in limited circumstances, which I think is the way to go (if it even has to be included at all).

The controls are tight enough when simply running around, but they become slippery when using any other form of locomotion (by design). Combat is terrible (as it was in the other Banjo-Kazooie games), but the environments are so interesting and pretty that there is still excellent plaforming to be had. Some areas reminded me a bit of Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts' hub world, which was the best part of that game.

I should mention that I encountered two different bugs where I was unable to control Yooka in some way. Nothing a reload couldn't fix, though!

All in all, I'm satisfied with the quality of Playtonic's first game, and I'm looking forward to a sequel that will be able to build on its foundation. Collectathons may have died 15 years ago, but the simple joy of obtaining an item is timeless.

Kingdom Rush Frontiers is a fine tower defense game, but its relatively standard gameplay does little to set it apart from its competitors. If you are looking for a tower defense game to play, I would recommend Defender's Quest: Valley of the Forgotten instead, because it does much of what Kingdom Rush Frontiers tries to do, but better.

Particularly glaring in Kingdom Rush Frontiers is the lack of a fast-forward button, which has become standard in the genre for a reason. The game has little downtime, but levels can take 15 minutes or more to complete, so replaying them for a better score at 1x speed can be annoying.

The four tower types are unique, but I thought some of the tower specializations were underpowered. The numerous heroes have a good variety both thematically and gameplay-wise, and were enjoyable to discover. It would have been nice to be able to more actively control them, because you are given only two spells to affect the battle with in real time.

Kingdom Rush Frontiers has fewer but longer levels than most other tower defense games I've played, but the enemy and map variety keeps things interesting enough. One highlight was the iron challenges, which disable certain tower types to provide a short but focused challenge.

For the most part, the tooltips are of acceptable quality, though sometimes they refer to having "a chance" of an effect rather than giving numbers. The metagame is pretty barebones; it mostly consists of upgrading your towers along a linear path.

The story is essentially nonexistent, which I have no problem with. Don't expect any real characterization or plot developments.

Kingdom Rush Frontiers held my interest, but unfortunately, I see no reason to recommend it over Defender's Quest: Valley of the Forgotten. I enjoy standard tower defense games, but the sad truth is that if you fail to innovate, you run the risk of someone else making the same game, but better.

A surreal action/puzzler that can be mentioned in the same breath as Frog Fractions.

Too slow-moving, and too easy. Shovel Knight had potential, but it is not required playing.

Update: I played through the Specter of Torment expansion, and while I enjoyed it more than the base game, my primary complaints still hold. The tower challenge was the only part I found at all difficult, possibly because of the main character's glacial movement speed. On the other hand, that character's mechanics are interesting to use, just as Plague Knight's were in the Plague of Shadows campaign (which is sadly not worth playing because the levels from the base game are mostly unchanged).

If you are a fan of the Souls series, you will like Dark Souls 3. I can say that because it is so similar to the games that came before it--pretty much everything that appears in Dark Souls 3 could have been done in Dark Souls 2. The gameplay, level design, and bosses are stellar, but am I wrong for wanting more experimentation in my sequels?

With Hidetaka Miyazaki back at the helm, the gothic architecture and ruined cityscapes from Dark Souls 1 make a return, replacing the more natural environments found in Dark Souls 2. The artstyle uses a motif of ash and embers, and while this produces a distinctive look, it also results in a lot of gray areas that run together.

The level design is strong, and as in the other Souls games, you are almost always rewarded for investigating nooks and crannies. Like in Dark Souls 2, bonfire warping is available from the start, so while the environments do often wrap back in on themselves and reveal shortcuts, the world is not nearly as interconnected as that of Dark Souls 1. I was almost never given any reason to return to an area after I had completed it.

The bosses are mostly hits, and are much more varied in design than those in Dark Souls 2. The lore is as obtuse as ever, and (as usual) don't expect much help from the game's tooltips. Armor is still basically interchangeable, which is something that seemed like it would be an obvious thing to improve.

Newcomers to the series might as well start with Dark Souls 1, as it will remain the most influential and most people's favorite. Those starting with Dark Souls 3 may be in for a rude awakening when they reach a required and non-trivial boss very early on.

The Witcher 3 will likely be a genre-defining game for some time. Future games will be forced to innovate to avoid comparisons.

That's not to say that the game is perfect. Completionists beware, because the content overstays its welcome if you try to do everything. I did not play either of the DLCs, but by the end of the game, finishing up the main story felt like a slog.

While playing, I was reminded of Guild Wars 2 due to the focus on exploration and the ability to sometimes stumble onto the middle of a quest. I always enjoy exploration in video games, but The Witcher 3's decision to choose environmental realism over fantasy caused the exploration to fall short of its potential. Remember Westfall in World of Warcraft? Imagine that zone stretched across both continents. More environmental variety would have been very welcome, as would some fantastical architecture as a reward for discovering a place hidden away.

Graphically, The Witcher 3 looks great. The animations stand out in particular as some of the best in the industry. Modding is supported, but it's a pain to set up--third-party programs are required, and you're sometimes left debugging diff files.

If you are a newcomer to The Witcher franchise, I would suggest playing The Witcher 2 before The Witcher 3, as it will provide some backstory to the geopolitical factions present in the Witcher universe. However, The Witcher 3 does not require you to have played either of the previous games. The Witcher 1 has very little story connection to its two sequels.

The Witcher 3 does not feature player choices as sweeping as those in The Witcher 2 (possibly because 3 is a less focused experience), and you are sometimes forced to make choices with insufficient information. The ending is particularly egregious, where seemingly random, insignificant choices turn out to be not so insignificant after all. Occasionally, I was not given the option to make the choice I felt was appropriate, which was somewhat frustrating.

If you like open-world games, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is definitely worth checking out.

An excellent tower defense game that iterates on the best in the genre. In Defender's Quest, your towers are characters that you can level as well as customize with talent trees and equipment. Each character class has its niche, and enterprising players can further specialize them using the talent trees. Spells and character damage and placement keep you engaged during the missions, and the persistence and meta elements keep the gameplay going outside of battle.

I don't generally play tower defense games for their stories, but the one in Defender's Quest isn't bad. The characters are mostly quirky and snarky, which is fine because their exchanges often succeed at being funny.

Other reviewers have mentioned that they were forced to grind levels, but in my experience, there is enough content at varying difficulties that you won't need to grind unless you want to 100% the New Game+.

Lastly, I want to comment on the puzzles in this game, which are optional but helpful, especially in New Game+. I assume that, for the most part, they're intended to be community-wide puzzles, because some of them are very involved. I'm not a fan of this style of puzzle, so I looked the solutions up online and I don't regret doing so.

Lacks depth compared to other TD games. Some sort of metagame would also go a long way, because it doesn't offer much of a reason to try challenge modes.

Desperately needs tooltips. I appreciate the different take on the tower defense genre, but the changes are not all for the better.

A satisfying game clearly inspired by Shadow of the Colossus and Dark Souls. Like Shadow of the Colossus, you will find the world barren except for boss fights (don't expect any climbing mechanics, though). Like Dark Souls, these boss fights will be difficult but very possible to master once you get to know your opponent.

The most interesting aspect of Titan Souls is the design constraints followed by the developers. Your character has three abilities: dodgeroll, shoot an arrow, and call the arrow back to you. You are killed in one hit but--and this is the interesting part--so are the bosses. Most boss fights manage to feel unique by exploiting a game mechanic or having novel movements or attacks.

Titan Souls does not reach the heights of either of its influences, but it works as an homage. The game took me a few hours to beat on my first playthrough, but an experienced player could theoretically finish it much more quickly.