Recent reviews by chrislo27

This game scratches an itch for me, having a power system that reminds me of the Create mod for Minecraft, satisfying building mechanics and water physics (even before Update 6 with fully 3D water), and good replayability of maps with the two beaver clans. Resource management is also not too obtuse. I also feel like this has something that Tropico 6 didn't have for me (maybe this has less micro-management?) and Factorio was a bit too in-depth. I haven't felt the time slip away on a game since Cities: Skylines -- thinking "just one more day", and a few cycles would have passed.

This builds on the first Coffee Talk game fantastically with visits from past and new characters, and explores lore a bit more in-depth and answers some questions I had from the first game. I first found out about Coffee Talk from a StephenPlays First20 video. I would strongly recommend playing the first Coffee Talk first. This is one of the best heart-to-heart games and I eagerly await more Coffee Talk!

I was playing Kuru Kuru Kururin on Nintendo Switch Online and then remembered this game from a NerdCubed video. This game is witty and I love the theme.

Obduction is a game that delivers on environmental storytelling but lacks much else. The game does not treat your time well -- it is generally pretty slow with the walk/run speed and loading screens (tip: press CapsLock to toggle "running") and there can be a lot of backtracking. Loading screens are slow -- not in the actual loading part, but the animations/transitions that play. Even the pause menu is slow! It takes about 1.5 seconds to open the pause menu and 1.5 sec to close it -- and sometimes your inputs get interrupted during that transition back.

The infamous "maze" is definitely deserving of its criticism from other reviewers, as basically every operation in the maze involves one or two loading screens plus walking, but the concept of that specific puzzle is good. Other puzzles in the game are not very interesting and never really hit any "eureka" moments.

The game's environments are captivating and imaginative, and piecing together the story was very fun. If you're looking for a more imaginative world than, say, The Witness, you will find it here, but this game is light on puzzles. You would have better luck with The Witness or The Talos Principle if you prefer that sort of gameplay.

Technical info: The game runs well (around 80-100 FPS) on highest settings on my mid-range hardware (R5 3600 + GTX 1660 Ti) at 1080p. Highly recommended to have the game on a SSD to improve the loading times.

Overall, I only recommend the game if you are interested in environmental storytelling and don't mind a slightly slower pace. I wasn't expecting The Witness-level puzzles but wasn't very interested in the puzzles in this game. I am impatient so I was a bit frustrated with how slow a lot of things were, but overall it was a positive experience. It took me about 11h50m to play from start to end which seems on par with HowLongToBeat.com's average playthrough time.

Last Call BBS is a fitting finale to the Zachtronics games. While I didn't personally love every game in Last Call, I feel like there's something for anyone, from the nonogram-like Dungeons & Diagrams, to the challenging-but-not-quite-as-inane-as-KOHCTPYKTOP ChipWizard Professional.

My personal favourite is 20th Century Food Court: thinking about how components interact and connect rather than how to actually make the component (like in SHENZHEN I/O) was a nice take on a Zachtronics "programming" game, and was executed with the same finesse expected from a Zachtronics any standalone title. I also appreciate that there are no assembly-programming games — not that I dislike them, I love them, but I think EXAPUNKS, SHENZHEN I/O, and others fit the niche better.

And Sawayama Solitaire is very enjoyable, too. Last Call BBS is absolutely a must-have for any Zachtronics fans, old or new.

Assembly programming with a purpose. I found TIS-100 to be a bit too mechanical, and SHENZHEN I/O scratched an itch for more solution creativity for me. The dialogue in-game presented through emails is also humourous, and presents a light tone.