Recent reviews by cub

Video review: https://youtu.be/d_VtMJoQQ8s
Written review below!

UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH is back yet again. This time though, we went from changing the game’s subtitle to slapping a 2 on the name. And yeah, it’s still just as fun, and.. well, difficult.

Note: Trimmed to fit Steam, check video for full version!

UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH is basically an anime fighter along the same vein as Guilty Gear or BlazBlue. I would say it’s more difficult than Strive, but maybe on par with BlazBlue. I don’t know - that’s all subjective anyways. That said, I liked the past two entries in this series and yeah, I like this one too, but it’s not without its issues.

Starting with the good though: The movement. This is probably my favorite thing about the game. It just, flows so well, if that makes sense. You have so many options to dash, jump, and move around the screen that once you get the hang of things, it is a very fast-paced and satisfying experience. That and the characters themselves are pretty solid, for the most part. Plenty of variety there - grapplers, zoners, rushdowns, all of that - and I always like a good fighting game where more than a handful of characters click with me. That said, Merkava is still my favorite. He’s just so noodly and fun to play.

The game also does a really good job with its tutorial system. There are over 100 different tutorials, each with demo videos and a walkthrough to help you through them. And then on top of that there are character combo guides and general strategy guides for each and every character. It goes to great lengths to get you into the experience, which is definitely warranted given just how hard a fighting game this is.

If you’re looking to hop into the game and don’t already have friends to play it with - you’ll be subjected to the game’s online mode. On one hand, there’s actually rollback netcode which is super nice for a niche 2D fighter like this, but on the other, there are not that many active players just hanging out in the game’s online lobbies and when you do find a match, it’s likely going to be someone way higher rank than you. People call this series a Discord fighter - meaning you have to hop on servers dedicated to the game to find matches - and that still holds true with this sequel - even if the online playerbase is double that of the last game, averaging around 200 online at any one time.

I spent some time in singleplayer, but honestly, those modes just aren’t that great. The arcade mode is pretty standard, but comes with a boring storyline and the time attack and score attacks are just vaguely different ways to play the arcade mode basically. Multiplayer is pretty much a necessity for this one and the most fun I had was duking it out with friends locally - and this is definitely one I’ll be keeping installed for that very reason.

I’m still not a fan of how tight diagonal inputs are, it just doesn’t feel right to me, but pretty much everything else is solid. The art is just as great as its always been, the music is excellent, the stages are cool and really just remind me of the Fate series, and the level of polish on top of it all is really impressive given the size of its developer.

UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH II Sys:Celes is worth a recommendation, but maybe not for the general audience. If you’re not already into fighting games, definitely pass on it, and if you’re not specifically into 2D anime fighters, then probably pass on it too. It’s got quite the learning curve, but is fun to play with friends and the addition of rollback netcode actually makes the game playable online too - even if the playerbase is small. The PC port apparently had issues on launch, but playing a couple months later, I can’t say I had any issues, so there’s that too.

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Video review: https://youtu.be/VAWWetRNL5o
Written review below!

I don’t know about ASa Project anymore. They did the excellent Sankaku Renai, the okay Koikari, and now this one, which might just be my least favorite of the bunch.

Note: Trimmed to fit Steam, check video for full version!

So basically, the whole thing with this one is that a sudden childhood friend shows up, confesses to the main character, and ignites a battle royale amongst the other heroines, all vying for the protag’s love. It’s pretty much your standard love rivalry setup, nothing too fancy.

ASa Project, the studio behind the game, is generally pretty good on the comedy front though and that’s usually what sets their games apart. For this one though… I can’t say they pulled through with it. You’ve got the perverted heroine that just becomes annoying, the constant onslaught of crude jokes that make the game feel like it was written by a middle schooler, and the whole battle royale thing has each heroine practically obsessed with the main character to the point of stalking and that being played off as a comedic thing just feels weird.

They went overboard on the comedy this time, to the point that the main story suffers. In fact, it’s hard to even see the main story here. Most of the common route is just various conversations between side characters, a lot of the time with the protagonist nowhere in sight. This can work if the characters are actually decent, but most have their one quirk that they practically embody and that is all you know them by. This doesn’t make for likable heroines, unfortunately.

The bigger issue though is that very main character. This is one of the flattest main characters I have ever seen in a romcom visual novel. The dude has no personality. No defining characteristics. He’s like a blank slate inserted into the story just so these heroines have a reason to exist. When he is with the heroines, he is just going with the flow and letting things happen. I know some romcom VNs like to create blank main characters to use as self-inserts, but this one is really pushing it.

Then there’s the character routes. As typical for this studio, they’re not the greatest. The romance comes across as shallow because the characters themselves are shallow and I would argue that a good chunk of each route, if not most of each route, are written with H-scenes in mind and the rest of the writing around that just kinda serves as filler. If you’re looking for a visual novel with good romance writing, this one is not it. If you’re just looking for an extension of the game’s comedic elements, then maybe you’ll get some enjoyment out of the routes.

The game at least has some decent visuals. I mean, it’s nothing too fancy, but the character designs are nicely done, I liked the brighter colors this game goes for, and the music isn’t grating - which is more than I can say for some others in the genre.

That and the game does a good job with its settings, giving us all the usuals plus some nice bonuses, like animation speeds. On a technical level, it’s pretty good, even if the max resolution caps out at 1600x900.

That said, I did not enjoy my time with this one and cannot say I recommend it. As someone that generally enjoys comedy visual novels, this one was a bit too over the top in that regard and felt like it was written by a teenager. The actual character routes suffer as a result and of course, none of this is benefitted by how flat the main character is either. It’s good on the technical level and with its presentation, but there are far better visual novels out there worth your time.

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Video review: https://youtu.be/hIBgVpIbpXk
Written version below!

So Konosuba is a pretty good series. I have yet to read the light novels, but I love the anime and consider it one of the better comedy series out there. It seems like a good fit for a visual novel, given I also like comedy VNs. But they didn’t exactly give this one the treatment it deserved.

Note: Trimmed to fit Steam, check video for full version!

So if you remember a few years back, there was this Re:Zero visual novel released. To sum it up, it was terrible. A story that simply rehashes part of the anime with a slight twist and some tacked-on gameplay on top of that. In that sense, I have to give this Konosuba game some credit. This is not a simple rehash of some random arc in the story or even an alternate take on one.

This is instead a full-fledged side story that could very easily have been an episode in the show or something like that. I respect that. It’s nice to have these anime visual novels try to do something original and something worthwhile. Unfortunately, that’s kinda where my praise ends. The rest of this game is shallow, tedious, and way too low-effort for the price they are asking.

This is literally a $50 visual novel where the majority of the game is simple PNGs placed on top of the simplest of backgrounds with practically no animation. There are a decent amount of CGs, but nowhere near enough to justify the premium asking price. And really, the UI looks like something I would find in a mobile game. I try to avoid discussing price in my videos, but this is just egregious.

If you’re wondering the length? Well, it should take you around 5-10 hours to clear and probably more if you go for all the endings. Each of the main heroines has two endings and the rest of the side ones just have their one ending, but if I am being completely honest, I could not be bothered to even attempt to go for all of those after finishing the main story simply because the game makes it so difficult to do so.

Upon beating the game, you will need to go back and basically grind through the tedious gameplay elements of crafting clothing in order to fulfill the conditions to get on a character’s route. To make clothing, you have to send your party out on quests and part-time jobs to earn material, which can then be combined to make clothing via a magical stone. That’s a very Konosuba setup, I will give it that, but I can’t say it makes for fun gameplay.

The cycle of sending out on jobs, receiving a random assortment of material, trudging through a random slice of life scene in-between jobs, and eventually using the material to craft an item of clothing was really boring for me, a shame considering I like this series so much. It’s some mobile game quality gameplay and again, this is being sold at a premium price tag.

Otherwise, I can’t say that the story itself is bad - I mean, it definitely doesn’t compare to some of the highs from the anime, but I also cannot deny that Konosuba fans might find something to like here. It’s just that it’s all wrapped up in this poorly made video game - the type obviously just using the franchise to sell copies and if the Konosuba title was removed from it, this game likely wouldn’t have an audience at all.

So no, I cannot really say I recommend this one. Tedious and grindy gameplay, poor production quality, and a story that - while decent as a whole - doesn’t really measure up to the quality you would expect from this series. If anything, I just want to go read the light novels.

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Video review: https://youtu.be/fZYGoqzz3lM
Written review below!

Banishers is basically what you would get if you took God of War and gave it a little bit of the Sherlock Holmes treatment. It’s an interesting combo that has both its pros and cons.

Note: Trimmed to fit Steam, check video for full version!

Overall, the combat is pretty good. Hits have weight behind them, there’s a few different weapon types to mix and match mid-fight, the movement feels fluid, dodging, parrying, and blocking are responsive, and there’s an entire skill tree with new moves and such to add even more flavor. For not being the focus of the experience, the studio did a pretty good job making the combat fun to play.

That said, it really suffers with its enemy variety. It gets kinda boring fighting the same type of ghosts over and over throughout the game, especially since the only visual difference between most of them is their color. The boss fights are cool, but there aren’t enough of them to break up the otherwise monotonous enemies.

Exploration is also a big part of the experience and something Banishers does well. The level design in particular is solid. You have this large map to explore complete with branching paths, plenty of side objectives, towns with people to get to know, beautiful scenery, and I am just kinda a sucker for medieval/fantasy infused aesthetics and the world here in Banishers absolutely nails that.

One thing I really was not a fan of was the whole crafting/upgrading element. It reminded me of games like A Plague Tale or even God of War, where it’s just kinda tacked on to the experience and there to give you an excuse to wander around more to find more grass, stone, and other random material to collect for future upgrades. That aspect was not really fleshed out and came across as tedious as a result.

I liked the overarching plot. Two banishers - basically ghost hunters or paranormal investigators - traveling around solving cases and ultimately trying to decide the fate of Antea, your partner who herself is a ghost. It’s a great set up to tie together the rest of the game, which ultimately comes across as episodic.

That can be good or bad depending on the person. You have this goal of reaching New Eden - the town where your partner died - but must stop along the way to assist with cases that ultimately have no relation to the rest of the plot. Some of these cases are genuinely interesting, some are bad, but most are just okay. You’ll get one that dives into a couple characters and raises some great questions about topics like death, relationships, and what it takes to survive in the world, and then one that has a very predictable and boring twist with surface-level characters.

I would say for the most part, the cases are interesting, but there are quite a lot that just aren’t and you’re forced to go through them to progress anyways. Oftentimes the only relation they have to the main story is the decision you make at the very end when deciding who is to blame in a specific case. Your choices there ultimately decide the fate of your ghost partner, but I feel like the game could have done a bit more in making the rest of the story feel more than just episodic mini-stories.

The entire thing takes about 20-25 hours to clear, so it is rather lengthy, but I can’t say I see myself replaying this one to make different choices purely because the individual cases themselves - given I already know the outcome - would just be a slog.

Character designs are solid, the environments are detailed, the lighting is well-done, and the soundtrack is alright too. Performance-wise, I was unable to run the game natively at 4k 144fps medium-high settings on my 3080 Ti and ended up having to enable DLSS to compensate. After that though, no issues aside from the occasional funky animation bug.

I would give Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden a light recommendation. It does many things well, such as the combat, the exploration, and the narrative too, but I can’t say that any single one of these is anything more than just “good”. The combat has issues with how repetitive it can be, the narrative is hit or miss due to the episodic nature of the game loop, and the whole crafting/upgrading system just felt shallow. That said, you do get some really interesting cases, characters, and the boss fights are really cool too. I’m glad I played it, but would only recommend it on sale or in a bundle.

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Full review (with score): https://youtu.be/G4yuvzEmFVo
Written review below!

A story about finding love to overwrite feelings for the one you lost. UsoNatsu is a nice, short girls love visual novel that has gone oddly unnoticed.

Note: Trimmed to fit Steam, check video for full version!

UsoNatsu is a kinetic novel. There are no choices and your only input is just advancing the lines. It’s also not too long - clocking in at somewhere between 10-15 hours, which honestly is not that bad for the type of story being told here.

The story starts out slow, throwing you into these random slice of life scenes where not much happens. In a lot of visual novels like this, this kind of content can oftentimes become overbearing, but I did not really get that feeling here with UsoNatsu. The slice of life scenes are spread out well, are varied in their delivery, and don’t drag on too long. It’s genuinely fun to get to know these characters and the game does a great job advancing the overall story through these scenes.

The idea is to overwrite painful memories with happy ones, so oftentimes you’ll have these "fun" scenes and the characters may share just a bit of their past or otherwise have some sort of small development so it doesn’t feel like just slice of life filler. It’s a balancing act and UsoNatsu overall does a great job with it.

The pacing is great until the last 20% of the game or so. Relationships changed too quickly and the entire love triangle that develops during the middle of the game just becomes cheesy at that point and I can’t say I cared too much for it. This makes the emotional beats that the finale was going for not quite land as hard as the writers probably aimed for. I mean, the ending itself is satisfying enough, it’s just everything immediately preceding it that felt like it could have been spaced out another chapter or two.

UsnoNatsu is a love drama, but it’s not overly dramatic. There is a love triangle, but it isn’t this super annoying thing. I really liked how the story felt grounded and realistic in a way. The characters actually act like humans and not some mess of anime tropes. The main character in particular, Kaoru Tachibana, has some genuinely interesting monologues that might just be the highlight of the story for me.

She’s grappling with the loss of this relationship she had with her teacher, who herself is probably my second favorite character in the story, while also managing these blossoming feelings for the second lead heroine, Shiori Minagi. Minagi has a really interesting backstory and I enjoyed getting to learn that, but I also can't deny that I felt like she came across as a bit shallow at times.

There’s also the friend character, the one that finds herself in a love triangle with the other two, and really, she was probably the least interesting of the bunch because she hardly had any time to get any real development and felt more so like she was inserted into the story to act as a driving force for what is obviously the main relationship here.

Overall though, I liked the characters. A couple of them may be lacking, but the main heroine is very well written and easily carried the experience when the others were lacking.

For everything the game just did right spacing out the slice of life scenes and having some actually decent pacing, it kinda shoots itself in the foot with just how much it uses flashback scenes, even for events that happened not that long ago. It’s like yes, I remember that just happened 30 minutes ago or so, I don’t need to be reminded. That part felt like filler.

The art might just be the single best thing about the game. This is a visual novel with characters that have more than one outfit. They quite literally have a new one each time they go out. That kind of details seems small, but considering that most VNs hardly give you two outfits max, it’s nice to see the studio go the extra mile there. That and the models aren’t just some static thing. They are slightly animated and that was a nice touch too.

Backgrounds and the overall color choices and lighting and all of that were solid. It’s a very good looking visual novel and probably one of the best I’ve read in quite some time, at least in that department. The music too though. It’s not quite on the level that I would listen to outside of the game, but it is also not super grating or repetitive and it does its job well.

Settings-wise, the game has the basics and that’s pretty much it. Skip mode option, speed options, all the different audio sliders, and window options. That said, I do have to give credit to the fact that I think this is the first visual novel I have played that natively supports 4k resolution and even has an framerate option in the settings. The game looks great and runs well at 4k, 120 fps and I am glad that at least some devs are realizing that not all VNs need to be 720p or lower.

UsoNatsu is a short, yet sweet girls love drama that might just be the best-looking visual novel I have played in years. The art is gorgeous, the story is engaging, and the characters are fairly likable overall. It does have some issues with its finale and a couple of its characters, but I enjoyed my time with it and would recommend it to girls love fans.

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Video review: https://youtu.be/9XcWHDRiUIk
Written review below!

Last Train Home is a lot of things. It’s a real time tactics game, but also a survival management game. It’s an RTS, but with a full fledged historical narrative in a setting we don’t often see. Some of these it does well, some it doesn’t.

Note: Trimmed to fit Steam, check video for full version!

The game basically has two sides to it: the real time tactics of its individual missions and the larger RTS, survival resource management side of things. The former is fairly straightforward. You deploy a squad of soldiers to a given mission and complete a number of objectives to win.

It’s nothing too complicated, but it’s definitely not bad. The game gives you a variety of unit-dependent skills to use, a cover system that basically decides the victor in drawn-out battles, several different weapon types, intuitive field of view tools, and an entire slate of hotkeys to manage your gameplay. That’s all great to have, but it is also unfortunately coupled with some shoddy AI and combat that can come across as stiff. A lot of the time, you can simply rush in and wipe out enemies by having the sheer numerical advantage and if you don’t want to go that route, you can simply wait behind cover and let the AI wander towards you and just die without fighting back.

It’s a bit weird overall. The missions sometimes work and are fun, but sometimes have little issues like this that make it hard to take seriously. Still, I would say it leans more towards the fun side of things.

Similar things can be said about the RTS gameplay. You basically have this train serving as your home base and need to send squads out to gather supplies, disembark at stations to trade with local merchants, and tackle side objectives along the way to your next big destination. It’s a pretty cool system to have on top of the regular mission stuff and I quite liked being able to customize and upgrade my train, manage my units with all the different class types and abilities, and the random events that popped up occasionally were cool too.

However, this also comes with its issues. The actual act of making and sending out squads is probably my biggest problem. It’s just so unintuitive. You can’t filter by specific traits, so a lot of the time you’re stuck manually sorting through units to assign to squads and these units cannot be placed on more than one. You can’t rename squads, you can’t auto-assign at all, it’s really just a bunch of micro-managing and really brings down this aspect of the gameplay.

The narrative here is genuinely interesting and a great driving force for the game. It is a bit janky in some areas - like the lack of pause between most dialogue lines - but the setting is super unique, it’s all voice acted in the original languages spoken by each country, and it's fairly fast-paced without feeling rushed, making for a pretty engaging overall experience.

The game looks great at 4k, max settings on my 3080 Ti and manages to run incredibly smooth on top of that. Over 100 fps without many dips, stutters, or other such technical issues. Maybe I am just used to games from this genre performing poorly, but I was impressed by the polish here.

So I would say Last Train Home is deserving of a light recommendation. It may have its issues, particularly with its AI and reliance on tedious micro management, but the gameplay is fun, the RTS train management side of things is super cool, and it's all tied together by an engaging narrative. All while running smoothly with great graphics on top of that. With some quality of life upgrades, I can really see this one being a great recommendation for the genre. Even in its current state though, it’s worth a look on sale at least.

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Full review (with score): https://youtu.be/dpl2eJs8JgU
Written review below!

Amnesia has been a very hit or miss series for me and I find it often leans more towards the latter. But this one... was actually good?

Note: Trimmed to fit Steam, check video for full version!

This is an entirely different game compared to Rebirth. The game is no longer a linear, point to point experience. Rather, you are simply dropped straight into this bunker, given a slight tutorial, and then told to figure out the rest yourself. You will get circles on the map to give you a general understanding of what you need to do, but how to do that is entirely on you.

It’s brilliantly designed like this. You’ll find a room that may contain a note that gives a hint as to where something is at and it all just feels so natural. The progression is organic, there’s plenty of room for exploration, and you can complete objectives out of order too. Not that you know you are doing that at the time, of course, which is what I like about it. It took the extreme structure that the prior game had and just completely swapped it up, giving us this entire bunker to explore that is actually fun to do so.

Not having a definite direction and not knowing what is out there makes the game way more effective as a horror experience. I went for almost an hour before I even saw the monster here, just terrified of all the noises I kept hearing and what I was doing that would possibly draw its attention. You learn bits and pieces from notes, but for the most part, you are on your own. I really liked this approach and it really only works here because of how freeform the gameplay is.

You cannot just pick up a walkthrough and breeze your way through the game, because item placements and the codes to unlock doors are all randomized. This makes no two playthroughs the same, as in one you may have more fuel or maybe more bullets, but be lacking in others. I had no issue with this setup either way, but felt it was important to point out regardless.

I was not a fan of the extremely dated save system. You get a few save points in the entire bunker and that’s it, even less if you are on a harder difficulty. Given how spread out the bunker is, you can go upwards of 15-30 minutes without being able to save and just die and lose all of that progress. Having to replay a segment over and over and dying because the monster decided to change its pattern is just tedious.

I liked the approach of being mostly told by the environment and all the little notes and photos scattered around, but I really do not like the whole “cosmic horror” element that the game increasingly leans into as it reaches its finale. The last game did this too, and while I think The Bunker did it better, it just felt weird to have this real, grounded setting - a WW1 bunker - mixed with this sudden departure into fantasy that rapidly escalates in the last 30 minutes of the game.

I have some other minor complaints, like the funky object collision, the controls being weird on some containers, and I did have the game freeze on me once too (really annoying given the lackluster save system). Otherwise though, I can’t think of any more off the top of my head. I see some make the case that the graphics are poor, but they aren’t THAT bad.

I had no issues running the game at 4k and hovering around 120 fps at high settings on my 3080 Ti. There are plenty of settings to change too, so there’s room to experiment if you need to get it to run on lower-end hardware.

Amnesia: The Bunker takes an entirely new approach to its gameplay and is an overall massive improvement over its predecessor, Rebirth. Gone is the structure and linearity of that one and now you have this semi open-world to explore complete with organic progression, great level design, and a genuinely scary monster. It may have issues with some gameplay elements and its story, but it overall feels like a horror game again, and I am excited to see the series continue in this direction.

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Full review (with score): https://youtu.be/UOqd-po5uP8
Written review below!

The original Valfaris was a fun 2D platform shooter, yet here we are four years later with a sequel in a completely different genre.

Note: Trimmed to fit Steam, check video for full version!

The game went from 2D platform run and gun shooter to a full-blown 2.5D side-scrolling shoot ‘em up. It is quite the shift and one I can definitely see turning off a lot of fans, but as someone that likes both genres - I kinda like it.

The game manages to take several of the elements that made the former good and translate them perfectly into the shmup space. The weapon variety and customization, for one. There are plenty to unlock there and each can be upgraded to become even more powerful.

The core to the shoot ‘em up gameplay is solid. It’s not like anything super complex or unique, but does the genre justice and that’s honestly more than I would expect from a complete genre shift like this. The shooting and movement is intuitive, melee is satisfying, the hitboxes are well-defined, and it just feels good to play.

The standard gameplay, as in, outside of bosses, is fairly straightforward and hardly ever caused trouble. The bosses, on the other hand, offered up a fair bit of challenge, especially later on. I felt like it was a good balance, but of course, you could make it even more difficult by ramping it up to the “hard” difficulty level.

The game’s camera was probably my biggest enemy. It felt like it was overall too slow for the new gameplay here. The delay between enemy spawns often felt like too much, like there weren't enough enemies. And then there are moments where you have to dodge obstacles in the environment, but the camera would sometimes get me stuck and, as a result, killed by being crushed by the environment. Maybe I am just too used to Cave shmups, but it was a bit annoying and I feel like the game could do with some additional speed.

There is a story here, but it’s really just this tacked-on thing and I wouldn’t say you need to play the first game to understand what is going on here. I mean, there’s not really much to understand in the first place, which is not even a bad thing, just something to note.

The game’s transition to 2.5D was well-managed and I would say that the models and environments look good enough for a retro aesthetic like this, but I also cannot deny I preferred the 2D spritework of the original game. I feel like some of that detail and charm was lost here. Although I will give props to the devs, they did improve on making things more “visible” this time around. I did not struggle with seeing projectiles like I did in the first game.

The music is just as good too. Roughly on par with the first game, with nothing too standout, but nothing really bad either.

The entire experience takes roughly 2-3 hours to clear depending on how much you die, so it is less than half the length of the former game, but that’s a pretty standard length for a shoot ‘em up and I can’t say it felt like it was too short or too long an experience. The rate of new content was steady throughout and honestly quite engaging with how often you’re introduced to new enemy types and areas.

There is a new game+ mode as well as secret areas to find and extra modules to unlock, but I cannot say that there is much replayability beyond that.

I had no issues playing through the entire thing at 4k 144fps on my 3080 Ti. You get the usual settings to change - resolution, frame rate limit, and graphics quality - but this isn’t really a difficult game to run so I am not going to complain about the lack of settings here. It is fairly polished too. I had no issues with bugs or anything of the sort.

Valfaris: Mecha Therion is a fun follow-up to the original Valfaris that takes what made that one good and slaps it into an entirely new genre. The game is now a shoot ‘em up and comes with some good gameplay, level design, visuals, music, and some really solid weapon variety. That said, the camera is a bit of a pain and the game mostly plays it safe with regards to its approach to the genre, which might not even be a bad thing for some. Regardless, it’s a fun play whether you’ve played the original or not.

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Full review (with score): https://youtu.be/lq30tHcy8FQ
Written review below!

I play a lot of weird games for my YT channel, but I don’t think I have ever played one that has me questioning the mental state of its creator.

Note: Trimmed to fit Steam, check video for full version!

The Gray Man is basically a first-person point-and-click adventure where you play as a serial killer. Or rather, you play as his conscience. It’s kinda cool actually. You’re playing as the serial killer, but not really. You see what he is doing and can try to sway him to a different path, but you’re not always in control. It’s a very cool perspective to have in a story-based game.

The story here is absolutely demented. I knew I was in for something sketchy when I opened the game and one of my first tasks was to keep this girl locked in my basement. You will witness murder, torture, and really just the entire internal conflict going on in this guy’s head. You can tell that he doesn’t really want to do some of these things, but can’t help himself and the game really likes to make think you can lead him in one direction before just snatching away that chance and subjecting you to depravity.

I know that sounds terrible and all, but it makes for a really engaging horror game. It was very interesting to see such themes tackled in this way and the constant tug and pull gives the story a nice psychological thriller feel to it.

The art is actually just insane. Scribbles going everywhere, seizure-inducing cutscenes made to resemble an internal battle, memories popping in and out in mere fragments… Having such raw visuals accompany such a story is literally a perfect match and the fact that so many of these visuals are only visible for fractions of a second goes to show just how much work the creator put into the art here. It is a very cool visual direction for the type of story here and honestly might just be my favorite aesthetic in any indie game released all year.

The actual point-and-click elements are very hit or miss. In some areas, it’s fine, serviceable enough. In others though, it’s not good. There are some sequences that utilize full 3D levels and to move around them you have to hit arrows on the sides of the screen and it’s like the most unintuitive thing ever. I frequently lost track of where I was, what direction I was supposed to be facing, and it’s just a confusing mess.

You will get one sequence that is simple enough to go through without needing any assistance, and then some areas where you literally have no idea what you are doing because the game oftentimes does not explain basic mechanics to you. This is very prevalent in the final sequence, which is some extremely frustrating stuff. The clunky navigation combined with the insta-death phantom that just goes around in loops makes it very difficult to complete. I must have restarted that entire level at least 20 times before I finally made it through.

I ran into a couple softlock issues during my playthrough, which fortunately were easily solved by a simple save and reload. The game saves often enough that I never really lost too much progress there. Still, any issues, including softlocks, need to be mentioned and absolutely should be something the dev should fix. I have been seeing constant updates sent the game’s way, several per week, since its launch, so it appears the dev is already hard at work doing so.

The Gray Man is a powerful and honestly horrific visual experience that had me questioning the mental state of its creator. The story, even for how dark it is, is incredibly engaging and tackles a perspective I can’t say I’ve ever seen done in a video game before. The visuals are insane and easily some of the best I have ever seen in an indie game like this. The gameplay, well, that part isn’t really as good. It’s kinda bad, actually. So it’s a bit of a half-recommendation here. if you’re in it for the story and you like psychological horror, you’ll be set, but if you’re in it for point and click gameplay, I would stay away.

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Video review: https://youtu.be/RxS6fy52eiU
Written review below!

KarmaZoo might just be one of the cutest games I have played all year. I mean, you can literally shoot hearts at your teammates to spread love and I can’t say I’ve played another game that quite reaches that level.

Note: Trimmed to fit Steam, check video for full version!

At its core, KarmaZoo is a game about cooperative puzzle platforming. You’ll run into situations where you need one player to unlock a door for another player to pass, or where you need one player to sing to activate a platform for another player to stand on. It’s not a really difficult formula to understand and doesn’t really get too complex, which may be an issue for some, but I feel like the devs did a great job making it just complex enough to draw in players that may not be familiar with the genre while still being engaging for those more experienced.

Levels are divided into “loops” which are kinda reminiscent of a roguelike run. The levels are handcrafted and selected from a pool of over 300 according to what characters are selected. After completing a level, players vote on a card to activate for the next, and this was a kinda fun feature in itself because you can do interesting stuff like force everyone to play the same character in the next level or one of my group’s favorites - a card that activates a saxophone to play with the background music. These were fun to play with even if they don’t always change the gameplay.

Characters range from your simple blobs, to owls that can glide, to lions that can sing in all directions, to literal flower pots that can create platforms from their flowers. There are 50 such to unlock, so there’s a lot of replayability in that regard and given that you can play with up to 10 people, I can only imagine how insane some combinations would be. That said, I was a bit disappointed to see that some of those characters had identical or very similar abilities to others instead of truly being unique.

Playing through loops and trying out different character combinations was fun, activating the dumbest level effects was also fun, and the game even has a competitive mode called Totem that can be played online or locally and that was a ton of fun too. That mode has a bunch of different level types, like races or eating challenges and it was really cool to see how the devs could take simple concepts like that and craft a ton of levels that all feel different from each other and try new things.

My only real concern with the game is its longevity. This is not a game that can be played solo. Like, it straight up just does not work. Trying to join a loop or creating your own spits you into a lobby with a message stating that two players are required to continue. This is not surprising, given that the gameplay would actually just be impossible to complete as a solo, but it is very important to note as once this game loses its playerbase, it will be extremely difficult to play.

I would give KarmaZoo a light recommendation. It’s a fun little co-op puzzler that is great to play if you have a group of friends ready to give it a shot. It has a ton of characters to unlock, level types to work through, and the competitive Totem mode is a lot of fun too. That said, if you do not have a group to play with, you’ll be at the mercy of the online playerbase which I honestly cannot see lasting that long, so that is definitely something to keep in mind.

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