Recent reviews by Analog

TL;DR: Balatro is a refreshing take on deck-building roguelikes, blending poker mechanics with addictive progression and strategic experimentation. Think poker night, but on steroids—and instead of your friends, it’s just you... and the addictive need to chase a new high score. With a satisfying gameplay loop and tons of replayability, it’s an easy recommendation. If you’re even remotely interested in roguelikes or card games, this is a must-play.


STORY: (1/10)
Does Balatro have a deep, emotional narrative? No. But does it need one? Also no. The “story,” if you can call it that, is entirely in the chaos you create. Like Mad Max, there's less plot, more explosive entertainment. The jester theme gives it a playful edge, but let’s be honest—you’re here for the cards, not the lore.

GAMEPLAY: (10/10)
This is where Balatro truly shines. The fusion of poker hands and roguelike progression is innovative and infinitely engaging. Modifying your deck, experiment with jokers for massive combos, and strategizing your run creates a balance of skill and luck. This keeps the tension high, and the “one more run” addiction real. The only way you're going to have more fun is a trip to Bangkok with some less-than-legal substances. It’s a masterpiece in delivering dopamine hits.

SOUNDS: (7/10)
The sound design complements the hypnotic gameplay and all of the audio cues feel rewarding and immersive. The ambient soundtrack supports the game’s pacing and will keep you focused like adderall, though it lacks standout tracks that linger in memory.

GRAPHICS: (9/10)
The art style is simple but effective. Vibrant card designs which are constantly getting updated variations, charming jokers, and the old-school CRT effect lend the game a unique personality. Nice art direction, great UI, and most importantly, good vibes.

REPLAYABILITY: (10/10)
Replayability is arguably Balatro's strongest asset. There are an incredible amount of jokers, joker modifiers, planet cards, tarot cards, vouchers, and more to make the game never repeat itself. No two runs will ever feel the same. It’s like Groundhog Day, except instead of learning life lessons, you’re learning how to cheese the system for obscene mult.

VALUE: (9/10)
Balatro offers incredible bang for your buck. So much that it almost feels like stealing. You will likely end up paying pennies per hour of enjoyment you get out of this indie gem.

WORTH BUYING?
Balatro is like going to a casino and winning just enough to keep you coming back for more. It’s a blend of strategy, luck, and joy wrapped in an addictive roguelike loop. Whether you’re a card shark or just someone who likes clever indie games, Balatro is a must-have. Just don’t blame me when you’re up at 2 a.m., whispering, “Just one more run.”

TL;DR: Vampire Survivors brought an entire genre to life through its unmatched fast-paced, overkill action. This game is basically cocaine and will have you staying up to unholy hours saying “Just one more run.” If you have even the slightest interest, buy the game. It will likely be the best $5 you have spent.


STORY: (6/10)
The story in this game is mostly non-existent. However, it gets such a relatively high score in this category as a showcase of its secrets and Easter eggs. Vampire Survivors is filled to the brim with references and has nearly as many secret characters as there are ones that are traditionally unlocked. Almost all of them bring something new, interesting, and fun to the table for you to mess around with.

GAMEPLAY: (10/10)
Now to mention the game’s crowning achievement. To put it simply, the gameplay on offer here is purely intoxicating. As mentioned in the TL;DR, an entire genre has surfaced due to the popularity of this game, and for good reason. There hasn’t been a game that has fueled such a raw addiction in me for a long time, namely Borderlands 2 and its gameplay loop. There is arguably nothing in recent years that matches the formula that has been crafted here.

SOUNDS: (9/10)
The sounds design and music are also excellent. The opening soundtrack you hear on your first run through Mad Forest will get you hyped up for your monster slaying adventure. The sounds of the Hellfire barreling through waves of enemies and carving your escape route are sure to bring a sense of hope on difficult levels as well. Best of all though is the upbeat track that plays when you open your first legendary chest, often perfectly timed when you’re getting surrounded to signal that the run is saved.

GRAPHICS: (8/10)
Some people don’t like the pixelated graphics, but I personally love them. The detail in every character model is fantastic, the particle effects that spray from your weapons are often cool and varied (and the developer has thankfully added a option to lower these effects as an accessibility setting), and the design of late game stages brings a lot of unique feel to each challenge.

REPLAYABILITY: (10/10)
A perfect score is given here since the entire game is centered around it’s replayability. There are 41 characters, all of which start with a different weapon and have different stats and bonuses. There are 32 weapons (not including union or counterpart weapons), almost all of which have a completely unique evolution that fundamentally changes or enhances the way that the weapon works. There are 21 Passive items that you can use to evolve your weapons or otherwise influence the game based on your preferred play style. There are 7 different modifiers that you can apply before a run to change how the run will function. Basically, the game is infinitely replayable.

VALUE: (10/10)
For the final talking point, we have the one most important for a lot of people. Luckily, this game passes the category with flying colors. I legitimately can not think of a game with more bang for the buck outside of “free to play” micro-transaction ridden MMO games. For the price of lunch, you can buy this game and get an easy 30+ hours of actually fun content, but you’ll likely get many, many more hours before you get bored.

WORTH BUYING?:
Vampire Survivors is an amazing little time capsule back to when gaming wasn’t about milking the consumer for every last dollar. In it’s purest form, this game is about bringing fun back into gaming with innovative gameplay, endless replayability, non-stop action, and a player-first mentality. There are of course a couple of problems as nothing is ever truly perfect, but damn did the developers give it their all. An absolute must-have for anybody’s library, and I encourage everyone to try it out.

TLDR: If you liked the Hot Wheels Pack from Forza Horizon 3, or maybe just like fast-paced, action packed, over the top dumb fun, you'll love the Horizon 5 Hot Wheels Expansion. Well worth the $20 price tag, and I would argue it's an absolute must buy when it eventually goes on sale.


STORY: (5/10) The story in this DLC is more of the same thing that we've received since Horizon 2. Just enough of a plot or driving force to show that the developers didn't completely forget about it. However, the developers know that you don't buy a Forza Horizon game, or especially a Hot Wheels DLC, for immaculate storytelling. Which is exactly why...

GAMEPLAY: (10/10) The gameplay in the Horizon 5 Hot Wheels Expansion IS immaculate. Nothing rivals the feeling you get when you're in the driver's seat of a screaming supercharged V8 going 200+ MPH through a loop, on the edge of slamming into a wall or flying off a cliff for a solid 3 minutes straight. The purest sense of adrenaline in gaming for the entire runtime.

SOUNDS: (9/10) Calling back to the screaming V8, the sounds in Horizon 5 in general are a vast improvement over the previous iterations. The sounds of the added cars in the Hot Wheels Expansion are no different, and fit perfectly alongside the classic guitar stingers that play when you catch airtime over a speed boost jump.

GRAPHICS: (10/10) Everything about the new map is truly beautiful. The ice glistening and the snow covering your windshield, the desert sand coating your wheels, or the crazy heights that the floating island rises above. Just about everything in the DLC is jaw-dropping. The models on the new vehicles are also near flawless on every occasion. Prepare to take many, many screenshots.

POLISH: (9/10) Typically you'll run into quite a few bugs when playing any Forza game, but surprisingly enough I only ran into a singular bug during my playthrough. The new Hot Wheels in-game map glitched and got replaced with the normal Horizon Mexico map when I tried to set a waypoint to my next race. It was easily fixed by just closing and opening the menu again. It should be noted that even though I personally didn't experience many bugs, Playground Games has somewhat of a reputation for them, and many of the other reviews are claiming game-breaking crashes or worse. Please keep that in mind when deciding on your purchase.

REPLAYABILITY: (8/10) I was thinking of marking this category "Not Applicable" but then I remembered that Rivals mode exists and decided otherwise. This category and the 8/10 score is therefore aimed more towards the track layouts themselves, which are pretty phenomenal for the most part. There are a couple races that could have been improved (namely the B-class ones) but overall give a lot of opportunities for the top 1% to shave off the precious milliseconds.

VALUE: (9/10) As mentioned in the Gameplay section, this DLC is pure brain stimulation for the entire playthrough. As well as that, the playthrough itself is actually rather long if you're going for 100% on everything to unlock the exclusive cars. Speaking of the new cars as well (even though they aren't exclusive to DLC owners), we actually get a new king of S2 Grip Racing with the launch of "Bad to the Blade". Some of the best drift spots in Horizon 5 are on the new map, as well as a litany of achievements for hunters to collect and accolade points for leaderboard rushers to climb higher with.

WORTH BUYING?: Some of the most enjoyable content released in the racing game community for quite some time. Captures the best aspects of the original Hot Wheels Expansion while only improving on them. Not necessarily a jump in innovation, but that doesn't inherently make it bad. All of the new cars are fun to drive, all of the new tracks push your skills, all of the new sounds bring a symphony to your ears, and all of the best aspects of Horizon 5 have been made even better.

TLDR: If the idea of a ShaRkPG intrigues you, or you enjoyed "Jaws Unleashed", I would fully recommend picking this game up at a discounted price. However, if you are looking for a long and/or story-driven experience then look elsewhere.


STORY: (5/10) The story in this game is passable enough to get you through the short run time on offer. It has moments of decent humor, as well as a genuinely good narration gimmick throughout that is both entertaining and surprisingly informative. Despite this though, you should not pick this game up for the story.

GAMEPLAY: (9/10) You should, however, get this game for the gameplay. Being truly unrivaled in fun factor for a recently released RPG, this is a power trip like no other. You’ll thrash through wildlife, smash through gates, tail whip people at Mach 5, and blow up fishing vessels with nothing but your bone-armored head. If this game had more varied enemies, this category would be flawless.

SOUNDS: (10/10) Speaking of flawless, there really isn’t anywhere else you can hear muffled screams of a person being devoured while Chris Parnell casually mentions the cycle of life in the background. Everything from the explosion of dynamite to the crack of bones is crisp and well-balanced. Legitimately some of the best sound design in recent memory.

GRAPHICS: (8/10) Having played through this on the max settings, I can say that the majority of this game looks beautiful and runs great. Everything from the textures to the water slowly turning red as you feast on an unsuspecting banana boat rider looks astounding. All of this is unfortunately downplayed by the late-game lighting. I distinctly remember minding my own business in The Gulf when I look to my right and see that the bloom effect has taken notes from Hiroshima. For the health of your eyes, do not play through the last few hours of this game with the lights out.

POLISH: (7/10) In your play through, you will likely run into just a couple of visual bugs that don't really hinder much of anything. You will however, if you're as unlucky as I am, run into a horrible game-breaking bug in the final boss fight that will require you to restart the game to get the fight to go over smoothly.

REPLAYABILITY: (6/10) It’s a far way off from the likes of "Borderlands", but over time I’m sure that you could run through with a different set of evolutions that might make the experience enjoyable again. This is actually rather sad considering...

VALUE: (4/10) The game would benefit greatly from replayability due to its minimal value. Don’t get me wrong, you can see from the categories before that this is a very enjoyable experience. However, I simply can not recommend this game at full price due to the length. I managed 100% completion in a measly 7 hours and 34 minutes according to the game's final screen. That is, in my opinion, far too short for a $30 game, at least for this level of quality.

WORTH BUYING?: Simply put, if the concept of this game intrigues you then I full recommend to pick it up at a discounted price. As long as you don’t go into this expecting story arcs that will stick with you for months and years, you should have a fun ride from start to finish. This is the perfect game to fill up a dead weekend you might have around the corner.