Recent reviews by Zaptheshark

*JUST STARTED BUT GIVING AN EARLY HONEST REVIEW*

Amber Isle is essentially Animal crossing x Stardew Valley X Moonlighter... which is such an amazing combination and works so well with each other. In this lovely game you star as a dinosaur (of your choosing thorough a small but thorough array of character customization options, who fell from a balloon and landed inside of a shop on the wonderful Amber Isle. Mayor Clawsworth, while not to happy with your trespassing has offered to allow you to repay your damage in exchange from running the shop.

Sound Design
The sound design is very simple, but it works well for this type of game, the game depicts itself as a relaxing game, however the music can be a bit bouncy at times which can kill some of the relaxing vibes, I feel it might just need to be just a touch softer.

Cast of Characters
I absolutely love the cast of characters! This may be the first time ever that I think I like every single character that is in a game, which is actually crazy when you know this game has 48 different Paleofolk to meet! Each one has a very distinct personality from one another, and some are even very obscure Paleolithic species that many people might not even know exist because you only know the basic ones! Each character has their own likes and dislikes which is very reminiscent of the Stardew valley aspect or similar building friendship games. They also each like those games have their own timeline of what they do for the day, each once again VERY different.

Crafting
The crafting in this game is very simple, which is something I do appreciate because it's nice and easy to go out into Starfall Meadow or somewhere else and pick up the material needed to craft goods for your shop. Speaking of crafting... there is SO many things you can craft for your shop to sell that it's not even funny... I can't remember if it's for decorations for the shop or for your own building area.. but there's like 500 craftable objects.

Character customization
The character customization is a bit smaller than I imagined, while there are 48 Paleofolk each of which is a different species, there are a very select few dinosaurs and mammals that you can actually be, you can however get pretty close to designing others through some of the extra customization options like collars and fins, and markings. The character creator also has a few bugs that can definitely make it really tedious to change the color of certain pieces to your liking... I can remember trying for gray, and then you hit enter, and then all of a sudden it's red... and you have to do it again.

I'll add more as I progress through the game, doing my best to keep it as spoiler free as I can. Despite the many bugs going around with this game, it is an absolutely delightful game with a colorful cast of characters that make this an enjoyable game, and recommend you check it out!

Before I START, I happened to win a free code through a contest but I will provide as unbiased of a report as I can.

Now I started this game with the demo, where I put a fair bit of hours into it despite the very little content it had. But the content that it did have is what hooked me to the game instantly.

You are essentially a tourist who arrives at this island, who winds up somewhat becoming in charge of the island (Think of a stardew valley/Animal crossing hybrid) and you get Critter cove. You wind up meeting a whole bunch of colorful characters, who you get to spend every waking hour with (Love you Pokee, Sammi, and Anchor!) But lets get into the nitty gritty.

GAMEPLAY
The gameplay feels very much similar to Animal Crossing, Coral Island, Stardew Valley in that this is a cozy sandbox game in which you can do all sorts of fun things, from doing quests for characters, fishing, collecting objects for museums,diving for treasure, exploring islands, setting up a farm, decorating your own house, and taking care of all sorts of amazing characters you meet along the way. You have the opportunity to travel in your trusty boat (a lovely bathtub boat of course!) to neighboring islands in hopes of discovering new things and people.
CRAFTING
Like many of the games stated before, you can craft SO many things in this game, but crafting does not feel like a chore. If you need to craft something at a bench it could take a few minutes depending on how much and what you are crafting, so you can wander off and do other things as needed. Finding certain supplies can be a bit challenging so sometimes it can be the luck of the draw if you find it, but you can always purchase some stuff from good old Renard!
SOUND DESIGN
The music in this game is absolutely beautiful, it makes you feel like you are on a tropical paradise, even though you are somewhat on the opposite. Despite this there are a few sounds that can definitely get on your nerves... and the biggest one is the eating. Whenever you eat something you hear this very grating sound and it gets very tiring and aggravating hearing it over time, and it's probably the only sound I truly hate in this game, but they did describe why they kept that sound, and I can see why in a way.
Characters
So the characters in this game aside from Pokee, Renard, Checkmark, Sammi, and Anchor are pretty much random or at least from a subset of characters. Each one has their own personality, and for the first time ever, you truly do have a character that just full on hates you at the start and you have to work to earn their trust and admiration... (not you drunkard Shane). All the characters feel like they have their place in this world, and each one has their own little story to tell, which is wonderfully done.

Overall,
I am very proud of how far this game has come from the demo, and I look forward to finishing everything with the main quest and continuing for as long as they support the game.

Well done devs!

10/10!

* Let me preface this by saying that I did win a copy of the game from the company, HOWEVER, this review will be my personal view of the game with zero bias because of that win*

This game was something that I always pictured as a game that could catch my interest. I always enjoyed the whole farming simulating aspect of games, but how many times could you truly to reinvent the wheel. There are so many farming simulator-esque games out there, how do you create something that feels so unique that separates it from all the other farming simulator.

Well in pops the Critter-Cove demo. The Critter cove demo has you become a lovely furry, scalie, or fish character who is welcomed to this Island to help invest in its future. Even before you step onto the land that would be your new home, you are met with characters with their own personalities to become invested in (but more on this later). Your goal is to help this island grow, bring in tourists, and create a thriving island town. How do you do this you may ask? Well you will be exploring an openworld that includes islands and the ocean itself to explore for loot, garbage, food, and random odds and ends to help craft your way to a new island paradise.
The demo itself gave me ~3-4 hours of pure excitement as I was able to plan out just how I could see my island paradise. I would be able to craft streetlights to make my island bright and vibrant at night time, I could create a whole little small outdoor seating area with tables and chairs in the center of the square if I so chose. The options are limitless in terms of your own imagination.

So lets go into each major section (based on the demo)

Character Creation
* The demo has seen some of the best character-level customization I have ever seen in a game. There are just so many options that make it feel like everyone can create their own creature character and be 100% unique. Do you want to be some fox person who has pink fur and green hair? You can do that! Do you want to make yourself look like a pirate shark? You bet you can! You can make yourself into a mammal, fish, bird, lizard, dragon, other mythical creature (within reason) the possibilities are endless! And the demo just has a touch of what you could experience.

Quests
* The questing system seems to be in a pretty good position. From the start of the game it guides you through some pretty generic quests to help you get your footing in what many may see as a "usual farming simulator game questline" Getting through the demo questlline can feel a bit tedious, with very little in the way of a reward for succeeding, but it still gives you a juicy look at how the game is played, and gives you the general idea of what you need to do to get the ball rolling when the full game releases.

Sound design
* The sound in this game is absolutely beautiful. If I woke up one day on a random island in the middle of nowhere, but a town was just being built, the music in this game is how I would imagine it. I don't feel like there are any major sound errors or bugs.

Relationships
* While the demo itself doesn't go to indepth with how relationships and romance works in this game (if at all), I expect that there will be some level of it that will appeal to those interested in such relationships. Some character like Pokee are right there from the start, so you get a sense of some of the characters personalities right away in the demo.

Crafting
* So crafting is pretty much how you see crafting in any survival/ building game, you go out and collect some loot, come back to a crafting station, craft something, and then go to the other crafting station using that item you JUST crafted. it is a LOT of back and forth between different crafting stations that might not appeal to everyone, and it can feel like a chore, but the time it takes to make certain items is very minimal.

With that I would say to give the demo and check it out and see if you like it! If you enjoy games like Sun Haven, Stardew Valley, or Coral Island, chances are you will like this game.

10/10 (with some minor tweaking of things that feel like a chore... aka crafting and long tutorial questing)

Hometopia was a godsend for people who grew up with games like the Sims, and then moved on to games like House flipper. Hometopia is designed as a game that lets you design your own houses using over a thousand items to be placed as well as several different floor and wall designs. Along with designing your own house there is a career mode that allows you to earn money so you can add on to your newly constructed or designed house!

Pros
1. TONS and I mean TONS of ways to design and construct your house, from roof design, to bathroom design, to an outdoor bar and playhouse.
2. Amazing developers that are active and looking for new ways to design the game to best suit the needs of their players.
3. Well-designed career mode with no bugs that I can detect currently ( I know others have had some, but none on my end)
4. The ability to manipulate items in any way you want really.
5. The ability to place an item down and to FULLY customize that item with fabric color and textures, wood textures etc!!

Cons
1. Sound is a bit off, some people may not like the music, and then if you turn the music off it becomes a quiet wasteland.

Overall despite the game being an early access, it is already working it's way up to one of the best games I have played in a long time. If you were a fan of the sims or house flipper, you will find enjoyment in this game!

Edit: I know people were saying it has performance issues... I play on a computer with pretty awful integrated graphics and I have yet to experience any major issues regarding performance other than a crash or two. I have pretty good >40 FPS on medium settings.

They have also come out and talked about future updates
1. Communities - designing your own shops etc
2. Sandbox mode (Yes it's coming so people listing it as a negative should have noted that it is coming soon)

Edit. You should absolutely join their Discord and interact with the AMAZING community they have formed! Lots of sociality in here!

EDIT #...3 Sandbox mode is back in the game! If you were missing out on the game due to the lack of Sandbox you should come on back cause we now have a full on sandbox mode to create homes to your hearts desires! They also patched a ton of bugs, and added optimization fixes, with more on the way!

Town of Salem 2 is a wonderful addition to the games create by BlankMediaGames.

The addition of new roles really adds to the fresh factor of Town of Salem, I remember playing TOS way back when it was first announced and was hooked on it instantly.

This game adds a fresh new take by allowing you to customize your house in a 2.5D/3D space, while at the same time attempting to figure out who is evil and who is good.
The graphics are absolutely delightful even on the lowest settings, the sound is just as good as the original Town of Salem, and the new modes are absolutely phenomenal.

What are you waiting for, come join the party!!

Forewarned is an interesting take on the horror mystery genre, but one that is amazing!

The story takes place in Ancient Egypt and you (plus your friends if you have them) explore different procedurally generated ( to an extent) ruins and try and figure out what the mejai is and escape with your life. I'll just go into some subtle details about the game and what makes this a positive review over a negative review.

Sound: 10/10 The sounds in this game really make this game feel like a true horror game! Unlike phasmophobia, it sounds like you're actually inside of a ruin in Egypt. Water leaks, you can hear honestly pretty scary voices just randomly appearing throughout the ruin.

Gameplay: 9/10 The gameplay itself feels a lot like Phasmophobia, but it still feels like it does a bit more and makes you actually work towards finding the mejai. Some of the tools do take a bit to get used to like the radar sensor and the radioactivity detector, but each thing feels useful. The time you have to complete a round varies based on the difficulty level, which is really nice for those that want a challenge.

The Mejai: 10/10. Okay the Mejai in this game actually feel like a threat compared to Phasmophobia. There are currently 5 different Mejai you can find. Each Mejai has it's own unique abilities, and has certain things the player needs to do to avoid the Mejai. For example Dekan is built to detect large amounts of sound, so you need to crouch and make your way around the tomb.

Environment: 8/10. The environment feels and looks like a real tomb! It can feel a bit repetitive with the rooms you go into, but overall it's still kinda nice, but in some ways can likely be improved. Also some of the rooms do contain traps which is something else that separates itself from phasmo with environmental hazards.

The only thing that can be a drawback is the fact that some random Mejai don't provide good evidence to really come to a concrete decision before the gate to the inner tomb shuts and you cant retrieve the artifact, but that's part of the challenge.

Overall the game is a blast and honestly could use a bigger playerbase, because it is lacking in players, and I'm sure this game could provide endless hours of fun!!

This game is a load of fun!! There's occassionally some bots that make there way on but they're easily avoidable. The community can be hit or miss depending on the people of course, but I definitely recommend it for the price :D

Be very Wary of this game! While the graphics may look good the movement and combat is just AWFUL!! Avoid if you can!!

Good concepts
1. The attribute level up and abilities are well done.
2. Monsters are preety cool but not quite unique.
3. Map is pretty huge for the size of the game.

Bad concepts
1. No jumping or fast running.
2. On occassion your character will move at this very slow walk with you getting absolutely nowhere.
3. The interace is cluttered with useless stuff, that no one will ever need.

Basically a really bad runescape clone.