Recent reviews by blob

Truly excellent. I find the trailer doesn't quite sell how brilliant, varied and creative the game is all the way. Levels are 4-5 minutes long but there are dozens of them and pretty much every single one brings a new mechanic. The game keeps reinventing itself through classic platformer inspiration (most obviously mario world) but shines with really clever level designs. Tons of secrets to find and the game has it's own "language" on type of secrets so once you get the general design philosophy you'll quickly learn what to look for.
Great sound track, lots of content and tons of fun optional things: there's even an in game drawing tool!

Cons:
- the system to switch usable items is absolutely infuriating. In rare occasions you will want to quickly switch mid jump and the item wheel does not pause or slow down the game making it a huge hassle. Not mandatory for the main game but still.
- havent found a clear way to know if a level has been fully cleared of all secrets making getting the last few ones painful to search for. note: not explained in game but there is a badge that apparently tells you have everything in a level. Wish it was more explicit!

Yeah I mean I've waited literally 15 years for this prequel so

Just so people understand: this is not 50 "minigames", this is a collection of 50 full new games...

And they are all innovative and polished. We're talking full fledged JRPG, metroidvania, puzzle games, beat 'em up...
Even at full price it's an insane bargain, the quality is amazing.

It's really good.

Bit of a steep wall to learn the game, some systems are kinda complex and not very well explained / presented in the UI like the spell system ( all heroes have all spells! They just need the resources to cast them and resource gain is pretty unique) or how to construct buildings ( towns have a limited growth level that's not shown in advance, hard to know in advance what type of building site it ll add and what requirements higher tiers will need).

But other than that, the game's gorgeous, the AI is better than in Heroes and less of an omnipotent cheater, the writing isn't great but the story is interesting and very character focused with a varied cast and avoids Manichean views.
Combats are really good, spells offer great tactical situations. I especially love the spell to exchange 2 unit's position which can allow some pretty vicious tricks notably when attacking a well defended castle. There is a convenient "auto battle" to not have to do the fight and AI determining the losses and if you don't like the result you can after the fact do a manual battle and try to do better. Saves a lot of time when there's a lot of small insignificant fights.
Lot's of way to upgrade heroes with equipment, artifacts, level up skills and special upgrades every 8th level.
There's even a whole map editor which I can't wait to dive in once i'm done with the campaign. :)

30$ is a totally fine amount to get access to multiple chars and hard maps.
For free you can play all 3 maps in normal mode, you can play any classes but limited to 1 char slot at a time. That's nothing new in free to play. People complaining are basically asking the whole game to be free. You can totally have fun playing through the whole game with friend with 1 class. I guess that's it's more a "shareware" but there's plenty of content accessible for free.

However I'm giving it a "meh" for now because they removed the shrinking circles making impossible to know where an exit portal will be so survivors just end up running around alone until the ceiling collapses on them which is really boring compared to the intense pvp to be the last one escaping. It's also even less noob friendly because it seems map mastery is even more important as you ll need to cover and survive a huge part of the map to have a chance to find a portal. Haven't seen a single one in 3 hours of playtime and haven't seen any of the survivors find one either while spectating soooo that's pretty underwhelming.
Edit1: After playing some more there are some stairs and ropes to escape so it's doable (though the game hates to explain anything to players, frustratingly) but I'd say it's still less exciting than the portal hunt.

Edit2: I've seen a couple legit issues with having to buy full access to the game via in game monetization.
1- It apparently forces a unified price in every country. In some country the 30 USD is a ton of money (people there have different prices on the store to adapt to the local currency's value) so it makes the game unfairly priced and out of reach for some.
2- By buying the game this way you cannot get a Steam refund. Though at this point you've already played the game so you should know if you like the game loop and if it runs on your PC.

Adds a bunch of dope aliens that fly and sh*t.
Yes it makes the game harder and more complex, not like the point of DLCs was pay to win.
Personally think it would have been a huge bummer if a classic x-com did not have airship fights.

TftV mod also tweaks and enhances it!

Frankly an excellent successor to the original X-com with a campaign a bit too long maybe.

pros:
- a proper geoscape where you decide which base to rebuild so that you can scan other parts of the globe kinda like the first X-com except this is more about ground exploration than intercepting flying units (though that is true once in a while too).
- the organic aiming system that ensures a % of bullets always go within a certain spread is so much more interesting than a dice roll of hit or miss. I don't think I can go back to classic x-com after that!
- a fun cast of monsters though lacking a bit in variety.
- good writing! Like, the game has really cool world building and great Lovecraftian oneiric events at times. The exploration events are mostly text so they were able to get a bit more wild in what happens there.
- 3 factions and in each playthrough you kinda need to choose who to side with changing a lot what technology you get access to and affecting your playstyle.
- it's modable!
- Like any good X-com you'll get attached to your crew that you can rename and you'll be mad when they die

Cons:
- mutations aren't as exciting as sold in the trailer, they do add a lot to difficulty but it kinda makes you fight the enemies that feel similar the whole game.
- campaign draws for too long, i dropped off in the last third of it I think.
- occasional game breaking bug such as having an enemy spawn in a wall making the fight unwinnable. Thankfully the game makes an auto save before a fight so you should not lose too much progress should that happen to you.

Well I did the whole game in a single sitting so that says something.

Kindof a spin on Arkham Horror (for mechanics and Lovecraft vibe) mixed with Junji Ito's style, I almost didn't buy the game when I read the game was too much RNG: the difficulty is very reasonable and the RNG is just skill checks DnD style. Increase the stats with lvl up and items then pick choice that use your strength and you'll be fine. Almost beat the game in cultist difficulty (difficulty 3 out of 5) on my second try (died after the final fight, 1 step from the ending) and it's all felt fair so far.

Ignore the trolls that say the art is traced on Junji's art, not a single source proving that and there's a picture of Junji playing the game with the dev so you'd think the dev would have avoided that if that was the case.

Fantastic art and soundtrack, creative spooky stories that mix perfectly the goodness of Junji Ito's stories in the Cthulhu mythos. Plenty of scenarios and unlockable contents through in game achievements too!

One of the greatest puzzle games.
- Fantastic writing that honestly made me stop, think and question myself.
- Great puzzles with good pacing, alternating from big tough ones to shorter ones to take a breather all while also giving plenty of freedom to the players to skip some for a while or play them in different order within a world.
- 10/10 soundtrack, Damjan always delivers godlike stuff.
- Classic croteam easter eggs all over the place too. :)
- Frogs are people too

My only minor complaint: Some secret stars are way too obtuse to find and not hidden in a "smart puzzle" way but just physically hidden in a way that will make you spin in circles for hours unless you look at an online solution.