Recent reviews by Miles (Tails) Prower

An excellent roguelike with stylistics of 8-16 bit era with an ENORMOUS amount of discoveries, secrets, enemies, and it goes WAY BEYOND that. If you are looking for long-term roguelike, then this game you will definitely enjoy. But be prepared for the patience.

Wow, this game is an insane rogue-like, and it's been awhile, since I've enjoyed the game, that hooked me up to the point, that I had a small real life problems. Don't get me wrong, it's not bad, it's just too addictive, because this game heavily relies on lore and knowledge you attain in the run, after run & after run.

Where do I start? So this is pixel based roguelike with real-time simulation of said pixels. That means water can vaporize by applying fire, creating steam. There is a lot to it, and even so much, that you have to, each time you play, discover certain alchemy elements yourself (they are different each run). You play as a "Noita" (Or Witch in Finnish), and your job is to complete the work. It doesn't matter how, everything is about how you approach it. The main aspect of the game itself is magic - your instrument of either utility or mass destruction. So let's start actually talking about advantages:

• Your tools can have near infinite outcomes of usage. So the game features wands, that have magic in them. You can find a lot of combinations of them, but what if I told you, that you can also, within limitation of wand's stats, edit the pieces of magic that you may either find or get it in other wands? Well, it comes with certain limitations, but this brings so many possibilities, that you can make those Gods, that look upon you, fear you. I am not kidding here, you can do that, but I'll cover one problem with it below. But in the end, this is a MASSIVE advantage to replayability.
  
• Worlds can go infinitely. This one I can't do without spoilers, but I won't tell you much about it. The only thing I can say that you can go beyond your limited world, with right tools.
  
• A lot of massive "Woah" moments. Ever like an element of surprise in the game? Well, this game has an insane amount of them, but they are also quite obscure. The clues are still open in the field, it's just finding them will be not an easy task.
  
• Interesting perk system. So, as we all know, roguelikes (roguelites as well) have a system of a permanent upgrades while in the run. The game offers it as well, with some interesting outcomes. It's not just a blatant +X to Y or something else. How about being a spider, or how about effect that alternate something within your proximity? Not all perks will be a perfection, some of them make your run significantly harder. So, choose wisely!
  
• Remarkable OST. Ofc, how can this go unnoticed. The soundtrack may sometimes sound just an ambient, but when you end up in combat, the OST can bring something spicy. Although I haven't listened to all of it, there are still some of my favorites. My only gripe is that there is no way to catch specific pieces in the loop, so that I can have a consistent way to play a favorite part. They come with a collection, that can play or not play at certain part of your gameplay. But it's also somewhat bring spice to it.

Well, so far, I praised this game well enough that I could give it a perfect score. But is there anything, that I can say, opposite of good? Well, yes, no game is perfect actually:

• The game can be really harsh with you. So get this. All roguelikes have a some sort of indicator of yours sustainability - HP. And I have played enough of this game and I can say, that health is scarce in the field, if you don't go beyond. There are ways of immortality, but only discovery & patience can lead to it. And if you are going to be reckless with tackling foes, traps & magic you possess (yes, it is a certified Noita moment, when you die by your own hands or stupidity), you are not going far. Take your time.
  
• Perfomance Taxing. Well, if you are going to very long runs (which are actually a good way to get unlock along the way for the future runs), the simulation is going to be bigger & bigger & bigger. Remember I said about infinity of world you play on the run? Well, it still limits to how's good your PC. Remember I said about want, that can make Gods fear you? Well, for the reference, it required TREMENDOUS computation power, and for my 13-year-old build, I had to wait, for a whooping 2 HOURS to let the process of the wand dealing 1 TRILLION damage (I am dead serious here, this game is fascinating, when it comes to very big numbers, that goes over 1 million, and you may never know where is the end to it) to the boss (I also forgot to say there are bosses in the game). So if you have a good processing power, perhaps, you will be just fine. While the game runs mostly smooth, the simulation can be harsh to it.
  
• Cloud's poor compatibility. This game has cloud saving. But it's rather a massive problem. To put you in the context - if you discover more pieces of world and beyond your main field, your save file also grows in size. And the problem is - if you discover a lot of your world and your cloud saving enabled, YOU HAVE TO UPLOAD A WHOLE SAVE FILE TO THE CLOUD. And that takes AGES! At some point, devs did address the issue by putting options in the settings, but I think what would be better to do it upload a that represent your found items, secrets and achievements in the game (not Steam ones). And because of that, you force to disable cloud for it. And guess what that means - you lose the file, start over. If you did 100% this game for real (which is a INSANE amount of work to put on), then you will have a problem to put a save file back if you reinstall PC or move it to the other PC, because it will be overridden anyway. This is why, in order to beat the last Steam achievements, I had to re-do SO MUCH PROGRESS again. That may decentivize further playing, and this is a MASSIVE PROBLEM.

So, that was my problems within the game. But 1 thing that I want you to say, that doesn't really fall as good or bad thing - 100% this game, as I mentioned earlier, will be IMMENSELY hard. So prepare yourself to sink down not 20-50, but 250-500 hours to it.

Well, that's it. This game is so good, but the flaws are quite problematic in this game. You can just roll your eyes at them with acceptance, since this game actually finished entirely. That means, devs won't be going to look back, most likely. It's worth the money, because of big replayability value. So now it is up to you to dive into the secrets of that await you within this game.

Great roguelike with high replayability value, variety of characters and items, good OST and ton of other features that make this game great. Be sure to grab all DLCs to get this game at full potential.


Well, It would be a crime if I won't leave a review after a long wait of finished product, so it's a great time to do it.

I've played OG Binding of Isaac. It was a great time, even the game was hard (and it becomes even harder with Eternal edition). But then devs made a remake, which is this game. While it barely brought something on the table to this time, except new OST and graphics, after some time, DLCs were released, getting 3 in total and making Repentance DLC last. There's a bit of drawback on this game is that if you want last DLC, you need to have all previous ones. Not complaining here because I bought them all progressively, when I 100% back at some point.

But anyway, let's talk about advantageous sides of the game. I am going to speak as of Repentance DLC, since it includes all the content, and I recommend you get all DLC, because it's one of the games, where DLCs are worth their money entirely. Okay, here we go:
+It's a roguelike. The original game hasn't changed formula much on the game, but now the game has seeds of the run. And if the seed contains 8 letters, then it should be somewhere roughly 4 billion outcomes of your run. Yeah.
+A lot of item combinations & synergies. I like how with some items, you can just break the game in half. It was a marvelous descent into item madness. In Repentance (again, last DLC), synergies went sky-high and there are more of them now.
+Choice of many characters. Yeah, there are 34 characters available in this game, which is insane. Well, some of them you want to touch once or if you feel the urge to suffer, but doesn't mean they contribute to roster, eh?
+Good OST. I absolutely enjoyed some good music in this one. Again, it's preference, but you should try listening yourself.
+Workshop support. With the latest addition of Repentance, there is a workshop support, that adds new characters, items, reworks and memes. That will surely make some people to stay for a long time.

Well, that pros for this game.


But are there cons? Not much, but they exist. Here we go:

-Co-op between steam users is a bit lacking. So in order to play with other steam gamers, you have to use Remote Play function. And I've tried it - I personally didn't like it. It has a certain delay, since the actual way you play with a friend is that you stream your game, and with that comes a small stream delay, which sometime is not ideal. But if you play local co-op, Repentance DLC got this immensely better than before it. There are mod to make co-op true through Steam, but it's only use better when you unlocked all, since if you have mods - no achievements or unlocks(?) can be granted.
-Can't really gift this game. Once you bought that, you can't gift it to your friend, perhaps for a reason above. Or you are just being generous or want to do a birthday gift. The way why it was made this way because if you would give, for example, afterbirth+ DLC, then it won't work without afterbirth DLC itself. To put it simple - to prevent game has problems with maintaining content. So if you want to gift a dude this, better give him a gift card in steam, so he can buy the whole package.

Like I've said, not much. Not all games are perfect, though.


Would I recommend this game to you? Absolutely yes. If you plan to 100% it, it has a big replayability value. Amazing how this game stood well after pretty much 10-11 years and there are lots of people still interesting to grab it and share their cool runs. Grab it, you won't regret it.

Well, not gonna lie, my main incentive to buy this game was meme emote, but my secondary one is that I played back in 2007 - Marble Blast Gold. And it's like around ~$3.50. A cheap game.

Well, I played it, and honestly speaking - it's a rather decent game. It's just like that Marble blast gold I played back in the day. You control WASD + Mouse for the camera, reaching the goal as fast as you can bounce around. But there are some real things that need to be talked about this game


You ask, what so different from that collection of Marble Blast games, then? Well, this game rather focus a competitive approach. Despite the game itself is still in Early Access feature, it has leaderboards, and while I am completing some hard levels in 4 minutes, some people already did in 9 seconds (So much for competitive spirit, huh?). But I've still casually strolled into some levels and got my achievements. Because let's face it, when it comes down to PC leaderboards, wait till this game will gain some popularity. And basically, this will be pointless (Trust me, I saw already enough of the games with leaderboards that got infested with 00:00:01 time completions or insanely big scores that is).


For the most part, design for such a simplistic game is fitting. Although, with the way how physics a bit slippery, some levels can be hellish with the difficulty. But another weird way how difficulty curve works is that you may have a level that you will struggle with, but afterwards, there will be one that is insanely easy (and this I felt more when I was doing advanced series of levels). And for that specific reason, with the way how some levels have a bit of a weird difficulty curve, I think times on them for specific rank (not leaderboards this time - gold, silver, bronze, etc.) needs to be adjusted to be more accessible as the game will get more people on board. Because with current state it's just not really worth the pain.

Power ups on the levels are used rather on a fashion of requirement. You won't see any in wilds (I mean just freely on level that doesn't have gimmicks). But level's ain't that big, so I think this is not much big of a deal.

But aesthetically, this game is great. The music and the way how game presented graphically, it can be art on its own. But it really depends on your taste for the art.


Well, I would speak of another disappointment that I had with controls, but I think I am totally understanding the choice of how it is in the game, because level design is requiring that WASD+Mouse needed.

But anyway, the game's decent. Replay value, so far, isn't too big, unless you wish to master and dethrone world records in this game. But if you are here to play casually, like me - you may stay here not for so long. I'll give and honest 5/10. It's not a great replacement of good old Marble Blast, but I am not saying that this game is bad. Give it a whirl if you have some money to burn. And I wish developers a smooth sailing with this game!

Despite all the performance and multiplayer issues I faced when playing, this game brought a lot of positive emotions, and I am not regretting my purchase. It's not a masterpiece, but a worthy single player experience. 7/10.

So, one of the most anticipated games of 2022 is out! And for a moment, with my 9-year-old setup, I thought I would be screwed big time, because only 1 requirement I met was RAM, but bot CPU & GPU were waaay below minimum. But with a bit of shaman work, I've manage to run this with average of 50FPS, which was playable for me.

But let's get to the game itself.

So this is a take of FromSoftware on how would Dark Souls be in open world. There are a couple of extra weapon classes, crafting added (which aren't too good, but good enough to aid you).

Comparing to Dark Souls, durability on weapons have been removed. Another noted feature is that now, you can jump! Jump in Dark Souls formula?! No way!

What also I utilized in my first playthrough is stealth mechanic. This one, I do believe, was taken from Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.

And, well, open world. If you have something OCD on collecting everything, this game will take you a long time to complete. But I am saying that in a good way, because the game itself if good.

Design itself is kinda average, not gonna lie. If you played Previous installments of FromSoftware game, you may notice, that some animations, enemies, weapons were recycled into this game. And some bosses you encounter will be the same, but somewhere, it makes sense. I am still disappointed on the part of recycling, but it's today's game development.

I can't tell you about graphics, because in order to make this game playable on my old setup, I have to squeeze a lot of performance, sacrificing picture quality. But seeing gameplay on YouTube, the picture is amazing. Though, PC port has some problem for High-End PCs, rather than those who got close to minimum.

I enjoyed the music of this game so much, that it still gives me chills, like I have heard this for a first time. Though not many soundtracks sound very cool, comparing to other games. The main menu theme alone can give you an impression, what peak of this music style can deliver.

Well, I am always praising this game in my bits, but what about issues? So I've told you about performance issues, recycles. What else? Well, perhaps balance (as of 11.04.22, when I wrote this review) has some problems, that deliver some bad mood at least in PvP mode. I don't play it at all, but I see when people having trouble enjoying the game due to glitches and broken balance. Another problem, which affected me a bit, is that unstable PvE, where I had issues with disconnects. Either host crash or just instability of servers themselves. Or out of randomness, my game decided to crash, when I am cooperator. And yeah, PvE crowd pointed out that they don't like to have forced PvP (this happens, when you summon 1 cooperator with you). But I have no issues with that.

So, this game indeed brought me some great moments. Finally, bows are viable, fun time with some interesting weapons. I was impressed by playground itself, though sometimes, some places tanking performance really hard. These places I have either lots of re-enters from menu or I had to blitz it, but that is my fault for playing on low setup.

Would I recommend this game? Absolutely! But keep in mind, that you might want to check it on your own, because you might have issues or don't like this game at all. Just try within 2 hours refund it, if you will have problems.

But my final verdict, 7/10. Not the best, but definitely good.

Well, it's about time I give this game a review. So, this was my first introduction to Dark Souls Series and I had a good time with a friend completing it with him. And for some reason, I keep coming back to it to enjoy from time to time, comparing it to the other games in the series.

You probably heard about this game as the worst of the series. Well, all I know, this game earned a reputation like this just because the launch of the vanilla version (which is not this one) got a poor start: optimization, bugs, new mechanics that didn't receive good fame. There are some valid points why some new mechanics aren't the best, but it's still a good game, IMHO.

If you are familiar with Dark Souls 1, then it's pretty much the same. Except now, I-frames tied to 2 stats - attunement & adaptability. People saying 105 agility (those 2 stats increasing agility, which is important for I-frames) is good. Movesets are a bit different from Dark Souls 1, which is a meh change. But I genuinely love the idea of having a feature of powerstancing 2 weapons. When your STR/DEX is 1.5 more than required for weapons, you can use powerstance (like 2-handing left weapon) to make unique movesets, which is awesome.

Weapons choice in this game is quite big. Although some weapon classes suffer lack of it, greatswords seem to be having a big amount of them. And some classes in Dark Souls 1, that were bad (like whips) are not as bad right now. I use to love bare fists anyway, due to one special item and bows (which are the best of all dark souls games).

This game is also one of the best for fashion souls. Armour can sometimes be good, but nothing beats fashion souls in this game.

Lore is kinda vague in this and barely touches events of previous games. This might be the reason, why some people got disappointed because dark souls 1 got amazing lore. I kinda have not much interest in it, but It's interesting to find some connections.

It's impressive, how the main menu made me love this soundtrack. I wouldn't be probably appreciating other OSTs without the main menu theme. There's not much of them, due to reused themes on some bosses, but I enjoy it nonetheless.


This is a weird one. You will notice something is not right when it comes to layout in some areas from time to time. Bosses are a bit lame because it's humanoid after humanoid, and some bosses are either reused or questionable as bosses. There's not much to say as design preferences can be different. You have to take a look at yourself.

This one is a mixed bag. Since the online dropped due to Dark Souls 3 appeared on the scene. It's not entirely dead and there are still some players you can play co-op or PvP with. But the PvP side can be damaging because of cheaters. I remember back in 2019 I got stalked & chase by a cheater, which was broking my equipment and destroying my stats, and there's still some of them lurking, but it's less likely you met them unless you PvP in the arena of the covenant called Brotherhood Of Blood, which is balanced poorly (you can get into matchmaking with overleveled players). And the biggest issue, compared to other dark souls games in Soul Memory. When you earn souls, you also earn it in counter, which will defy with what tiers will you match make. So, if you lose souls, or use them not in the levels, you will basically either make matchmaking worse on your end (in PvP) or you will draw yourself back, stepping into the territory where you will meet cheaters or meet none of the players. The soul level of Dark souls 1 was actually better.


That's pretty much what I have to say about this game. You should try it yourself. It's not a bad game. It has flaws but that doesn't mean it's a bad game. I would give it 7.5/10.

Alright, after all things what I saw in this game, it's time to put the cards on the table. I do not like this game, but for some reason, I am still playing it. It's like a Stockholm Syndrome of the game, what when I keep playing this game, I become even more disappointed, but still returning to it for some reason.

But let's talk about story mode. It is good, and at some points I just enjoyed maxing out every single stranger mission or event. I was going to 100% anyway. And I took them all to the top no problem. There is even a good modding scene, so if you bored, you can install mods and have fun! But my biggest portion of hour investment went into... ugh, Online....

GTA Online on PC is terrible. Mostly it's being ruined by cheaters, toxic people and freemode tryhards. When I decide to start from zero as 2nd character, you can and will be hunted by other people, who like to kill others (which, ofc, can't fight back). And from all I see, any people who just want to grind some money and not aware of tricks of being alone in the session or something usually give up, because of how balance was broken after introduction of some vehicles. And it's either you buy in-game currency (shark cards), use glitches for money and to be kept at least from toxic people or tryhards, or you get a cheat menu (and even there is so much scam going on). Without good knowledge in advance & friends, you will be stomped in this game.

And R* doesn't even fix half of these problems. Instead, they either add more troublesome grind, what involves you into PVP, adding some annoying characters, paying music artists to get copyrights on their music in the game. But cheater issue, prices on items, balance - nah, "that's not our business". This is their way to take your money, so you will buy that shark cards. But since they don't address a ton of issues, they don't deserve those shark card money. And people yet somehow defending it by saying - "BuT sHaRk CaRdS wIlL mAkE nEw UpDaTeS!!!!111!!". To hell with this reason. They only deserve shark cards once they make their online game good, not like a gutter. They only fix money glitches just because it hits R* and Take-Two Interactive pockets, while loading problems, transaction fails, broken mechanics what makes hard work of others look like nothing - "we don't care", says R*.

I strongly discourage taking it for Online. Take it only for single player, because this is the only part, what is not screwed up. Let this Online die in this horrible state on PC. But! If you insist trying Online, you better get either Xbox or PlayStation. Some problems exist, but I think it's way better than PC version.

Well, sometimes, I think it's better not trust any other company without solid play test. This expansion pack is brutally unfair. And if you got it, prepare yourself raging after a bit. I was so angry while playing this.

This, I do believe, level wise, is the same as The Reckoning expansion pack. It has even more stuff added to the game, guns, enemies, levels and OSTs. Not a big deal, right? Well, now here comes the terrible things.

First — balance issues. Every single new enemy seems to deal 25 damage straight. And since the ammo & med packs are scarce, it's really hard to keep yourself above middle in both ammunition & health. Not an enjoyable experience if you ask me.

Enemies — now this is some serious BS. FREAKING TURRETS. They are so hard to kill, and they are your biggest enemy in this expansion pack. Yeah, there are also more reskins to the existing enemies, which also deal big damage, but they are doable enough to tackle.

Level Design — this is also some serious problem. You had that feeling sometimes that you can't put your finger on where to go, where is the end? Well, good luck finding an exit from these levels. I got a solid hour on some stages. And because of these moments, It's really exhausting to play this expansion pack. After each stage, I had to take a break.

Weapons. You can almost get em at the start. But they are soooo bad. Proximity launcher has less damage to kill, tesla mines are weird and almost useless unless you want enemies to stop pursuing you. I am not sure what I used something else, because I haven't used them.

What I found good in this pack is the OST. At least something stays on top. But overall, this pack I strongly don't recommend taking, since it's just an infuriating experience of you dying, dying and dying all over again and save scumming. Instead, take The Reckoning. It's fair, balanced and level design itself is better than Ground Zero.

So, this is meant to be the first expansion pack for Quake II. But I didn't know that before, and played Ground Zero. But this pack was a pleasant experience. Well, when I used the same Yagami patch what I used for original Quake II, and I come across problems with the controls, but it was still manageable.

In regard of how many levels in here. Well, you probably know what in this game, some portions split into the units. This expansion pack is twice as short comparing to the original with some extra twist. Some well familiar enemies now have some extra features, a couple of new guns, and I do believe, a couple more OSTs. Balancing in this mode is actually good. Xatrix Entertainment knew what they were doing.

But there is one question. How come this could fit in as episode for original Quake II. Instead, it ended up as a separate game. But I guess there were complications after all.

I do recommend taking this expansion pack, but for the love of God, DON'T TAKE GROUND ZERO.

The review of Ground Zero is here: https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/id/Tails320/recommended/2340?snr=1_5_9__402

So, this game I heard a lot of positive things. Because you know, It's Quake. My introduction to this game was in the Doom II mods, where custom soundtracks were used from this game, but we'll talk about that later.

First things first. You can't run this game from a box. Instead, you have to apply patches, and there are a couple of them. I used Yamagi, but probably outdated one. The reason is - it supports OGG play of this OST (without patch, you wouldn't just have music), plus you can play on your resolution.

So, about the gameplay itself:

1. It's a bit different comparing to Quake I, but in a good way. Now you can carry special items in the inventory and use them at will, although you can carry one of each, but it's not a big problem.
   
2. The movement at first feel really slow, but after enabling always run, you should be good to go. Encounters aren't that action packed, but they are good enough.
   
3. It's a relatively long game. It maybe not take you long to beat it hour wise, but it feels like I was playing not 8 hours of total, but 20. I did it in 2 days.
   
4. This game has 12 weapons. And almost all weapons use individual ammo. It was even a surprise to find a BFG variant. That is because some people, who made classic Doom games were also behind making Quake, AFAIK.

Whew, that's about gameplay, now let's talk about graphics. It's quite atmospheric! It's dark, tech bases, caves & a bit of wilderness like rocks do also exist. Sometimes you just have to admire looks and stop for a moment, it's great.

Now it's time to talk about music. IT. IS. LEGENDARY! That was my big incentive to buy this game, just because I can listen to it and enjoy one of the greatest old school FPS shooters! Pretty much all OST I love to death and I keep enjoying it. Hell, I think I even buy it on Bandcamp once I figure out how it works.

Now, that I told about pros of this game, there's still some cons:

1. Gameplay - since levels doesn't have a map, it's sometimes really hard to navigate through some levels sometimes, and there will be a game inside the game [Quake II] called "Where The Hell Do I go?!". Also, not gonna lie, at the end, the game went a bit boring, but you can just blaze through it, you should have plenty of everything.
   
2. Graphics - this is a minor thing, but weapons in this game are wobbly. Quake 2 doesn't have a skeletal animation system. So, if you notice wobbly weaponry, don't worry, it's an intended thingy.

But I haven't found any other problem with this game. It's a really cool one, and you should try it. If you managed to run it, you will not regret about your purchase.

So, I heard about this game a lot of good things, and at that time, when I acquired it, it was free, so I grabbed it. It was collecting dust in my profile for a while, but with my recent desire of trying to 100% games, the choice fell into that one.

The game itself is actually a short one. Yeah, it's short, but this game is incredible. It screams with atmosphere: how dark it is, how usually there's nothing but silence (this game has no music), how some moments were intense. There are some puzzles, that are really unique, cool and simple. I enjoyed it. That is pretty much the pros of that.

About cons... Well, there isn't much of them, but I would say it's rather personal problems rather than the game. There was something about controls. First, it's not really intuitive at the first glimpse of the game, but it's alright. The other problem of this is how jump button holding keeps doing jump actions. This sometimes screwed up a bit with precision jumps. Yes, this is a small con as well on my book - there are some precision jumps, which I got messed up with this awkward jump button gimmick. At some point, this made me a bit nervous, since there is one achievement, that requires you to complete the game in one go and die less than 5 times (I died 4 times). But thank God, I did it first try.

But regardless of some problems, it's still a great game. But honestly, this will be one go. There's not much about repetitive gameplay. I would play this game after 5-10 years to remember, how glorious it was.