Recent reviews by Sev097

Slay the Spire is a genre-defining rougelike deckbuilder from the far-flung year of 2019 (before we knew such accursed words as "Covid-19", "PS5", or even "Cybertruck"). Despite it's relative age, Slay the Spire's stayed relatively current and is still a fun and interesting experience. I've had a good bit of fun with this one, and while I can't really say if 25 bucks is worth the price, I can tell ya a bit about it and about my experience.

ROUGELIKE: RISK VS REWARD
Slay the Spire is a game that encourages planning, and punishes poor decision-making and bad planning. The game itself is pretty heavily RNG-based, with a focus on risk versus reward in every decision, Do I greed for the card that heals me, even though I could take more damage than it heals in the meantime? Do I sacrifice some health for a potentially useful card? Do I tank some damage in exchange for dishing out a devastating blow? All of these are questions that have to be asked, and every outcome to both has to be planned around.

The RNG also awards you with progressive upgrades and buffs as you continue (and as the Spire gets more rutheless), in the form of Relics, Gold, Potions, and Cards. Relics are your random, permanent buffs, ranging from a basic increase to max HP to gaining a certain amount of block on a certain term, or some other obscure buff. Nothing's ever useless, but some are more useful than others. Gold is a currency to be spent at the shop or at various random encounters, and potions are one-time use buffs that help out in a particularly difficult battle. Cards are, well...

DECKBUILDER: SYNERGY
Cards are your method of attacking, defending, or buffing yourself/nerfing the enemy. They come in 3 main forms: Attacks, Skills, and Powers. Attacks deal damage, simple enough, with various potential side effects to yourself or the enemy. Skills generally provide a simple buff to yourself or nerf to the enemy, such as gaining a specific number of "block" that directly slices damage off an opponent's attack, or drawing more cards. Powers, however, provide a sweeping effect that often lasts quite a while or does quite a lot, such as finding a specific card in your deck and drawing it to hand, or drawing an extra card every turn.

Within these 3 types, endless potential exists for synergy, as you chain together different cards to deal as much damage as possible while blocking as much as you can. You can debuff an enemy with Vulnerable so they take more damage to levy out devastating attacks, or play a bunch of cards so that a card that gives you block for every card in your discard pile is stronger. Just keep in mind that energy, and hence attacks per turn, are limited, and once your turn ends it's the enemies turn to synergize on you, and if you don't draw the right cards, it could be devastating.

A LITTLE INBETWEEN
Between the planning and the luck, there's a little room for fun. The map itself is varied and features it's own decisions. Do you risk fighting a tougher enemy for a useful relic? Do you visit the shop or keep your gold? Rest stops offer a chance to stop and heal, or upgrade a card to be more potent.

Sometimes, you can find a random event that may do almost nothing at all, completely derail your run, or give you an instant win button right when you need it most, with event chains and miniature storylines that help you learn about the titular Spire from the inside out.

The game itself has a quaint little artstyle, and a pretty good soundtrack to boot as well. Nothing looks bad, everything is very nice and stylized, with a fair bit of animation and coolness factor on top.

A full campaign is only about an hour if you move fast, but the fun comes from coming back again and again to see what new challenges the Spire has in store, either with the daily challenge, ascension mode that makes the game harder the more you win, and 4 different characters with different cards, gameplay mechanics, and playstyles to learn. There's a lot here, and I've only scratched the surface of it.

CONCLUSION: 8/10
My time with Slay the Spire's been pretty fun, and the game itself is a pretty good timesink. With combos to learn, synergizes to understand, and the beating heart of the Spire to throw yourself at again and again, there's a lot here in this charming little deckbuilder. I'd call this one an 8/10, and I've had a lot of fun with it.

(PS: No shade on Playstation fans from the beginning there, lol. Y'all atleast have Astrobot.)

I doubt there's anything I can say that hasn't already been said, so I'll keep this short (again).

Balatro is a great timewaster, and a pretty good game. It is possible to get burnt out, but it's one of those games its very easy to pop into and just kinda enjoy the ride for a while. It can be very fun, with a lot of gameplay variety and a surprisingly large amount of depth for a card game. This deserved that GOTY nomination, and if the competition weren't so stiff, it would've earned it.

Now that that's out of the way, I'd like to take the opportunity to warn you that this game has bonkers RNG and a twisted sense of humor. I swear to god, this game has a mind of it's own sometimes, and I don't think there's anything quite like re-rolling the shop some 15 times hoping for the right stuff only to be met on the final re-roll with a card literally called madness. Sometimes the game plays itself, sometimes the game plays you.

I enjoyed it, though. There's a certain degree of spiteful satisfaction in playing what you've got and still winning even if the RNG is deciding you don't get to win today.

Aloft is a wonderful game. I feel like that's the only real term that can describe it: wonderful. Wonderful in the way a Pokemon professor calls your selection of starter, wonderful in the way a breathtaking scene from a movie is, wonderful in the simple yet cozy place you call your own. Aloft is wonderful, and can only get better from here as development continues.

THE STORY
Aloft's story, as of now, is quite light, with a standard silent protagonist you create. As far as I am aware, your player character is "canonically" a sailor, who entered a bad storm and washed up in the floating archipelago through some unknown means. From there, you spend time learning the techniques and structures to survive from strange, precursor structures left behind by an ancient, advanced society of ...caelonauts? I don't believe there's an official term for the sky sailors, but that is what they are.

Other than that, the world is your oyster. Characterize how you wish, explore how you want, and while dealing with the corruption is a primary focus, you can go about that as fast or slow as you want. The story takes something of a backseat aside from providing a place to point the bow towards. I think, personally, the building is currently the game's strongest point.

THE BUILDING
I have said this before and I will say it again: I remain a sucker for base building, and I do not have words to describe how happy Aloft's building system makes me. While early game, options remain scarce due to the lack of paper, especially once you get into things you start unlocking all sorts of base pieces tailor-made to allow for incredibly cozy, rustic spaces to spend your days in, Storage is a bit of an oddity, and the building controls took a bit to get used to, but once I got the hang of it I was having a lot of fun creating structures to function as, say, a barn, or as my home, or as a pilot's house, or as whatever I really needed at the time.

This base building is functional too, all of it: your island is already floating, all you need to do is slap some sails, rudders, and a good old fashioned wheel on there and you've got yourself a skyship. This system is quite dynamic and allows for you to have a lot of fun, but the general aesthetic the game pushes with these necessities is incredible. I love building in its style, and even if you aren't the creative sort you can take inspiration from pre-existing structures.

THE SURVIVAL
Aloft is a light, or as the devs put it, "feel-good" survival game. Very little is mandatory, although food gives you buffs and bandages help keep you from dying. Dying itself isn't much of a setback either, as you lose nothing on death aside from where you were. Difficulty is pretty much non-existant, but difficulty isn't really the point of the game. It's about relaxing in a light survival-exploration game. Hence, nothing is going to be constantly bugging you, and what you do is up to you.

Combat is a thing, how else are you going to handle the corruption without a sharp stick or two, but once again it's relatively easy, quite light, and (if you want to be pedantic) lacks a certain degree of depth due to the low skill floor. This is not a game for a sweat or a tryhard, I doubt you could tryhard at this game. It is relatively easy and quite fun though.

EXTRAS: MUSIC AND VISUALS
The music and visuals both collaborate to set the game's atmosphere, and ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, this game is breathtaking. The music is calm, wind-heavy (fitting) orchestra, and the visuals, while quite heavy on the performance end, are incredible, both featuring a bright and cheerful note with energy and calmness when necessary. It's not anything incredible, mind you, but it's certainly appreciated and sets the tone very well.

As far as actual issues go, performance is a constant complaint I personally haven't encountered. The game sounds as though it is relatively CPU-intensive, as my GPU is significantly weaker than my CPU, so factor that into your choice to purchase. I have encountered some funky behavior with how islands count as corrupted, but the devs are looking into that.

CONCLUSION
Aloft is a wonderful game, in every aspect. Its presentation is breathtaking, its building is cozy, and its actual survival is relaxing (combat is never a super huge rush). I have sunk quite a lot of time into the game already, and expect I will sink more into it soon. Aloft gets a solid 8/10 from me, as performance could be better and the game does show some early access limitations that will be fixed soon. Give this game a go, I am loving my time with it and I expect you will too, Caelonaut.

P.S.: Apparently Co-op is a bit of a mess right now, and third person is generally a bit buggy, so probably avoid both for the moment.

TLDR: Mixed opinion, works great sometimes but is brought down by annoying early access issues.

When it works, it works. The gameplay can be fun and engaging and very unique. The tasks are cool, the social deduction is great, and man, the game just has a very cool sci-fi feel to it.

When it doesn't, dear lord does it not. The bugs are all annoying, the gameplay can be either lightning quick or tantalizingly slow if your luck is bad, and it is frustrating to get a good lobby without 8 friends of your own. There's an exploiter problem, and even then the game crashed like 3 minutes into a game and closed the lobby.

I think there is a fair bit of good here, but probably wait for a sale or a few updates before taking the plunge, or find a big group of friends to play with.

Sea of Thieves makes my blood boil purely because I am not good at it. PVP is a VERY sink or swim experience (literally), and I do not have the stamina to really get the hang of it. Other than that, there really is a lot of good here that I just really wish I were good enough at the game to experience it more fully.

It's been a little while since I played the Aloft demo, so I'm gonna keep this brief.

Aloft is a charming, calming little game with a great if imprecise building system, grandiose and charming orchestral soundtrack, and a truly brilliant world to explore, restore, and research, all wrapped in one package.

I truly, really, loved this game, and spent every hour i could throughout a full week or two on it, building the best base i could, restoring the islands in the little section of the archipeligo we're allowed to explore in the demo, and enjoying the rich, calming, yet scenic and beautiful atmosphere and environments the game builds.

One of the best experiences I had with a game in a long time, 9/10 if only for some slightly frustrating bugs that were patched quickly or had slightly annoying workarounds.

If you know what NeosVR was, this is quite literally the exact same software as Neos was, but without any of the crypto drama it had. You'll feel right at home here, most of that knowledge transfers over.

If not, Resonite is a pretty interesting system designed to provide the tools to create VR worlds as well as explore them. If that sounds like corporate newsletter speak, that's because it really does feel a lot like a very early version of what the "metaverse" wishes it were. As of now the system itself has some pretty major performance issues (which the devs are dedicating time to handle, check back soon!) and a critically small community i've yet to quite interact with much (social anxiety is a POS), so I can't comment on the community aspect.

On the technical aspect though, Resonite is (for a noob) effectively incomprehensible. I've yet to take the time to learn about what ProtoFlux is or how their coding system works, but the tools are very much here, and I've even managed to learn enough to retexture an avatar (using gimp to paint it) without any of the unity nonsense a VRC avatar needs, and I've also learned enough to fix some broken stuff.

Long story short, if you can handle the obvious learning curb and get into the community, Resonite is an impressive little piece of software you'll quickly be able to start treating like a real Gmod VR, a VRC alternative, or a full-fledged level creator, all in one. It is still filling the boots of Neos in my mind (again, i've yet to interact with the community much and i havent made any friends), but it's getting there. Give it some time if you cant handle that performance, but give it a shot and enjoy seeing what the most comprehensive vr "metaverse" really has to offer.

Free game (really free, not freemium or free-to-play) of an astonishingly high quality. The characters are cute, the artstyle is very fun, the gameplay is easy, but fun, and the game itself is surprisingly polished for a game i only know exists because YouTube's algorithm decided it deserved attention, which I think it does. I'd love to see some more content, but for a 30 minute game it is totally understandable for this to be the full product.

Rough around the edges Logan Paul Simulator.

Content Warning is a game that takes heavily after the clipable nature of Lethal Company, replacing the dark, grungy atmosphere and scrap collection with Landfall's characteristic charm and a spin on the classic internet influencer grind. Your job is entirely content creation, to a reckless degree, and the entire point of the game is creating those infamous lethal company funny moment #12865218735 worthy clips. Make sure to introduce yourself and remind everyone else that you are, infact, fillming a blog while you're at it.

Jokes aside (and the jokes are pretty obvious with this one), Content Warning is a classic example of "taking a known formula and spinning it on its head to make it funnier", in this case taking the classic "idiots willing to die for 5 dollars" and making it even more clippable, to truly hilarious results. In that respect, i dont REALLY need to describe the gameplay loop, as at this point you probably know what that usually includes. Short version if ya dont: go somewhere dangerous, do some arbitrary task, get out before whatever dangers there get ya killed.

The issue is, as of now, the game is pretty rough around the edges in 3 main ways.

Firstly, there really isnt much replay value in this one. Once you've seen one run, you've probably seen em all. The difference, of course, is in your friends, which means playing with randoms probably falls a bit flat in comparison to playing with buddies totally willing to let you know from the dead chat you made a severe and continuous lapse in your judgement. Your friends will make the game funnier and fix this one quick.

Secondly, the gameplay variety, even with friends, still struggles. Emotes are pretty expensive, the flashlights really all do the same thing, and most objects dont show any real noticeable effect. Alongside that, the monster list is pretty predictable and oftentimes barely a threat aside from when you're putting yourself in danger for the camera. Again, this will be remedied by future updates and is also alleviated by having really funny friends.

Finally, the game really doesnt offer you much freedom with the camera for the sole reason that it just doesnt have enough film. If you waste time doing your stereotypical youtube intro, you're going to run out of film before getting anything real spooky. This is really simple to remedy, just add some sort of option for film length please devs, that would fix a lot.

None of this implies the game is desperately bad. If you enjoyed lethal company, you'll find this funny. but these issues hold the game back a bit, and while there are 8 hours of gameplay here, the later hours are gonna be a bit less fun. I'd love to see the few that need fixed fixed, and otherwise for you to tailor your experience around em. Absolutly enjoy the game so that way when you happen upon the corpse of your friend you can confidently exclaim something about logan paul without getting someone mad and with the knowledge its all on tape.

Pacific Drive is a very unique game, taking the well-worn rougelite gameplay loop and adapting it to the harsh environs of the Olympic Exclusion Zone, an all-American anomaly-infested Zone with a capital Z centered on the real-life Olympic Peninsula in western Washington State. Anyone who's seen the area knows that it is very beautiful, although there's a tad more danger here than before. Navigating the Zone is a dangerous task to be undertaken only by talented survivors and and high-tech equipment... what was that about a station wagon?

THE GAMEPLAY LOOP: DRIVE, SURVIVE, REPEAT
Yes, a station wagon, an old 1981 "Radius Motors" (Buick Estate) station wagon. A station wagon that gets 18 MPG on the stock engine. A station wagon with broken low beams and blinkers. A station wagon... you get the picture. The primary survival aspect of the game is using the wall of metal the car provides to stop the various threats the zone has in store from getting to you, usually through absolutely maniacal driving. Then again, not like anyone's giving you a ticket.

The gameplay loop itself is pretty simple: Pick a spot to go to on the map. Usually this is either story related or entirely arbitrary, all you need to do is pick a destination. Then drive there while looting materials from the environment on the way and avoiding various threatening anomalies. Once you get there, escape via the big pillar of totally-not-firey-death-we-swear to teleport back to the starting point, the auto shop. Once you're there, take time to repair, rearm, and upgrade yourself, the shop, and especially the wagon for the next run.

THE DIFFICULTY: A SUNDAY DRIVE (UNTIL THE EXPEDITIONS KICK IN)
Pacific Drive, atleast in the story mode, isn't difficult. I've died only 3 or 4 times throughout 3 playthroughs. Instead, the main story provides a relatively chill but still tense experience, giving you time to focus on the interpersonal drama unfolding between the former ARDA employees on the radio, and on the greater scale tragedy told in the logbook of the rapidly declining state of ARDA prior to the shuttering of the OEZ.

As far as that goes, most of the anomalies are stationary and avoidable with good driving. When things start compounding, it can get tense to drive well enough to avoid taking damage, but it's never really that bad and I haven't died in the main story unless I did something catastrophically stupid. The real difficulty comes from the new Expeditions system.

Expeditions are far more rougelike than the rest of the game, randomly generating a system of roads and junctions with only one exit and a much more stringent set of rules that restrict what upgrades and equipment you are allowed to bring from the garage, forcing you to plan better, improvise, and adapt, in order to overcome the added difficulty and receive rarer cosmetics and items to help make your next run easier.

Expeditions are where the game's real difficulty comes through, since there's no story involved. There are many more white-knuckle moments, anomalies hit harder when you aren't as well prepared, and every resource is suddenly valuable for armoring up just a little better. It's incredible, and I highly recommend it.

THE ATMOSPHERE: DOESN'T GET BETTER THAN THIS
Pacific Drive has always nailed it's atmosphere, with little features like a radio with licensed tracks (that it took a lot of effort not to base this entire review on), a pretty passable ambient OST, and gorgeous GPU-melting graphics. The game is at it's best when you are just driving, enjoying the beautiful environment of the Pacific Northwest, dodging little anomalies, and listening to the brilliant licensed soundtrack on the radio (obviously A Shell in the Pit goes hard, but some of the indie stuff hits hard too. Smokey Brights has yet to compose a flop).

The game kicks things up a notch when the storm rolls in, immediately turning from a chill driving game to a mad dash for the exit, albeit without a certain degree of real threat. The storm is more lenient than it looks, as spending a little time in it isn't the end of days. Don't get cocky though, it'll still bake you like a cake if you aren't careful. Every escape still feels like a miracle, and every moment of tense anticipation is incredible.

THE STORY: A GOOD REASON TO SEE THE ZONE
Perhaps the lowest quality aspect of the game is the story. That's not implying that its bad, mind you, but it struggles somewhat in making the player feel involved. You are the Driver, and your relevance to the story relies soley on the very anomalous car that's bound itself to you. The car is more of a character than you are, which leaves room for headcannoning, but not much room for feeling super involved.

Fortunately, the other characters do the heavy lifting in your absence. The geek squad on the radio is made up of characters with absolute boatloads of personality, voiced by incredible VA's with good story arcs and some pretty shocking twists. They serve as a great mouthpiece for the game and an excuse to go and explore the zone on their command.

As far as storytelling outside the radio goes, I hope you like reading. There is a lot to be gleaned from the database you make for each anomaly you scan, but it doesn't tend to tell you much about the anomalies themselves as much as the rapidly deteriorating state of the Peninsula and of ARDA, the USG's organization researching the miraculous tech that destroyed the Peninsula. It's been quite some time since then, and the database functions as a disaster log of everything that went wrong, alongside the comments your companions on the radio leave about their time at ARDA.

OFF-TIME: KICK BACK A MOMENT
Perhaps one of the best aspects of the game outside the calm moments on the road are the calm moments at the garage, upgrading your car, spending resources to unlock new stuff, adding new equipment to the garage to make your life easier, and customizing the car and the garage with the various cosmetic options provided. Between paint, decals, and cosmetics like stickers and hood ornaments, the wagon can be a clown car or a futuristic transport if you want it to be.

Similarly, the garage has somewhat less options in the form of collectible wall decorations, but don't let that discourage you from making it your own. Turn on the radio while you're there, it's worth it.

A FEW SMALL PROBLEMS
Overall, I only have a few complaints with Pacific Drive, several of which were addressed since the writing of this review (suspend drive is an on-demand save button).

This game, as previously stated, is an absolutely gorgeous and very GPU melting game. FPS tends to tank, especially lategame in the Auto Shop and in more complex junctions. It never gets unplayable, but it gets annoying for sure. You will need pretty strong hardware to enjoy this one.

The looting aspect of the game can be quite weak, especially lategame in the story mode. Resources start feeling meaningless, and stopping every couple hundred feet to loot another abandoned car isn't fun, and interrupts those chill driving moments the game does best. Prioritizing loot clusters can help alleviate some of this, and god knows you need to cherish every roll of duct tape to survive a later-game Expedition.

CONCLUSION (TLDR: 8/10, give it a go)
Pacific Drive is a great game I've had a lot of fun with over 120 hours, 3 playthroughs, and what must be 100 trips out into the OEZ. It's a game with incredible atmosphere, pretty good story, and atleast passable gameplay. Even once the game is over, Expeditions provide a difficult and enjoyable postgame. This game is 100% worth the price, and while it might not click with everyone, it's certainly worth a shot.