Recent reviews by Windwright

Disclaimer: I was given this game by a friend of mine, but that friend did pay for it.

Look, I get it. People want a full-loot PvPvE game. It would be -super neat- for people into PvP looters. But I need to level with you folks: That idea just doesn't work without a LOT of help and work.

Albion Online is able to do it because there are safe zones and low-risk zones where players can go to recover from a loss or to build up a reserve to let them make a big push.
Sea of Thieves is able to do it because all you lose by getting sunk is your unclaimed progress.
EVE Online has high sec systems that are lower risk and safeguards set up that let players recover from a loss.

This game needs SOMETHING to mitigate the frustration, because as it stands it's entirely possible to leave the tutorial and lose all of your starting potions and bandages without ever seeing extraction, much less actually extracting, due to more experienced players killing you and starting you over from nothing.

I can promise you that any player that that happens to is going to rightfully demand a refund. High-risk, high-reward scenarios need a low-risk, low reward alternative or you're playing a zero-sum game that relies entirely on new players being fine with throwing $30 at an hour of frustration.

I cannot recommend this game to anyone in its current state, because even if the bugs are all eliminated, all of the classes are released, and everything is balanced and fair, without a way for players to recover from a death, even if that way is very slow, players are going to leave until the only people left are hardcore people who have no potential victim pool left.

This is a solid start to a spooky, atmospheric game. I actually found myself believing at several points that this was a miniature franchise park where something had gone wrong. It lacks some of the scale of an actual park like Disney or Six Flags, but it captures the feeling of those kinds of places if left to crumble, and the characters and personalities given to the animatronics and the AI assistant feel like they're on-point for what you'd expect of an actual mascot park. There are definite hints of story and history, and the voice lines given to the animatronics especially feel exactly as condescending as theme park developers tend to make them when they make parks out of an IP taken from elsewhere. I'd even be interested to see the characters being used in non-horror media because the developer clearly understands how to build a believable children's animation character and I'd be interested to see how such an IP would do.

There aren't a lot of outright scares, but the game is fairly tense, and oddly the collectibles being a thing made me feel more tense since I'd often find myself looking away from the big obvious thing just in time for that thing to move while I was trying to find another plushie. I don't even normally play spooky or scary games and I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of this project.

So, downsides first: You'll probably want a guide for all of the collectibles, some of the puzzles and bosses require a specific combination of lateral thinking to solve that aren't always obvious, you'll want to watch a playthrough of the previous two games if you haven't played them yourself, and if your friends want to avoid spoilers it will physically hurt to not talk about this game because HOLY MOLY this is a good game.

I'm not great at Platformers, but the game gives you accessibility options and doesn't shame you or gate off achievements if you use them. The game gives adequate trigger warnings without spoiling, and it goes way, WAY out of its way to remind the player how dangerous it can be to play around in someone else's head.

The cast is charming, the voice work impeccable, the art style complements the tone and theme of the game well, and the levels are all polished. Some of the powers are a little more useful than others, but none of them are completely useless, and the music is great, even outside of the stage absolutely devoted to musical theatricality.

A charming little puzzle platformer with surprisingly good models for a product that's currently free. The game is absolutely gorgeous, and the environments tell a story that will make you feel small from more than just a scaling perspective. The jumps are forgiving, and the checkpoints frequent, which is handy since there is a noticeable jump in difficulty for the last portion of the game.

If I could offer any criticism, it's that the game could use a free-roam post-game to let you mop up stamps, and just because I wanted more of the game. Very well done.

Combining the worst aspects of Hack and Slash tactical RPGs and MOBAs is...not a great idea. New players are essentially flung to the lions and are a liability on their team while simultaneously being completely unable to advance against the meat grinder that is more established players once they've gotten their first or second tier up in a match.

This was a free game, and I want a refund anyway.

It's a game about robot space ninjas. You can be robot space ninjas with friends.