Recent reviews by Delvan

I'm obsessed. There's so much!

What can I say that hasn't been already said? When a friend showed me a clip I thought it'd be fun for a laugh purely from the ridiculousness of the concept, but I had no idea what was in store for me. Now, here I am approaching 200 hours played at time of writing. Its dynamic and action packed, chaotic as all heck, incredibly moreish with a soundtrack that is top notch. The developer is extraordinarily dedicated, constantly pushing new updates into a game that is absolutely packed with fun and satisfaction. And did I mention the crabs? There's crabs!

ITS REALLY FLIPPING COOL

Of all the ways to inform yourself, this is one of them. Fallopian Frenzy seeks to dispel countless myths about sex and sexuality through pulsing, addictive gameplay. The just-one-more endless scroller is naturally addictive, but an individual run is short enough that you can also easily rub one out when you have a few minutes to spare.

Masterpiece. We've done so many playthroughs of this and we're still discovering new things. I just can't put into words just how incredible this game is. D:OS2 gave me incredibly high hopes and BG3 BLEW them out of the water.

Once upon a time, in a quiet little steam page, I stumbled upon a deceptively simple game called Poosh XL. With just one button to press, it seemed like a harmless way to pass the time. Little did I know that this seemingly innocent arcade game would soon consume my entire existence. Every spare moment I had, I found myself fixated on that single button, chasing high scores and trying to beat my previous records. The days blurred together as I tirelessly tapped away, my life becoming a monotonous cycle of pressing that button, over and over again. My passions and hobbies faded into the background as Poosh XL took center stage, demanding my attention and devouring my every thought. I became trapped in a never-ending loop, forever chasing the fleeting thrill of victory in this simplistic yet all-consuming game. Now, my life is spent, lost in the rhythmic chaos of that solitary button, forever longing for a taste of the outside world I left behind.I am become a mere shell of the person I once was, my existence reduced to the mechanical dance of pressing that one button in the endless void hoping to become the number one Pooshie Hound.

One of a kind experience. Besides playing through this myself, I've now watched multiple friends play through it as well, the voyage of discovery is that pleasing to see someone else's first time. If you have the heart of an explorer, don't read anything more about the game, go into it and enjoy it.

Unstable, and frustratingly clunky. A step-by-step walkthrough would amount to a paragraph per "ending", of which there are three. Instead of solving puzzles, or even just understanding some unusual but clever logic, there is no 'Ah HA!' moment when you make progress. Most of the time spent is (following vaguely spoilery):








* Checking every LED on a panel to see which ones are buttons you can interact with (usually, this gets you nowhere, but 2 of the 3 endings are dependent on doing exactly this to the right panels)
* Very slowly ambling through ventilation ducts, often in the dark since flashlights are consumables, doubling back every time you encounter an aggressive enemy as there is no mechanism to distract or subdue them
* Wandering the ship clicking on every object that vaguely resembles what you are looking for. Fire extinguisher? Its one of the vague cylindrical objects somewhere on the ship. ES Board? Its one of the thin circuit-board-like objects somewhere on the ship. Clicked on every single object vaguely resembling what you're looking for and didn't find it? Bonus! A very small number of the boxes and cases can be opened, now go through the ship manuevering every box and case so you can cleanly click on where the latch might be to see if it is one that can be opened.


Setting all the above aside, the core game concept has potential. The decision to have nearly zero conveyance does at least pay homage to the games which inspired it, but it lacks the "oh, I get it!" when you finally see what the designer had in mind when you progress. While it's predecessors had a limited number of screens, usually with some animation or coloring to make interactable objects stand out, this is jammed into a 3D setting (with an unused physics engine) where the game is no longer "How could I use ____ to solve this?" but instead is "Where the heck is the ____ I need?"

I am absolutely loving this game.

The stability system really helps set energy, missile and ballistic weapons apart beyond just the heat & ammo considerations of other games in this setting.

Morale, operating costs, reputation, travel time, repair and refit time, pilot injuries (and deaths) add an entire layer of gameplay beyond the mech combat.

Melee is here! So is Death From Above! Even if you're not excited about those as a primary tactic, they add an extra tool in your toolbelt when your mech is overheating or has lost most of its weapons.

Once you've made your way through some of the main story missions, you get an awesome ship with loads of upgrades available related to mech repair & refit times, healing up pilots, more mech bays, more (and better) living space,
luxuries to improve morale, simulator pods to give your rookie pilots experience, and more. Some of the random events go differently if you happen to have certain facilities on-board.

There's plenty of room for improvement for the game, of course. It could use some optimization, it'd be nice if you could move mechs from one mech bay to another without disassembling & re-assembling them, and inventory/roster lists would do well with some extra data columns.

Love the environment, and the mish-mash of the setting. The story was presented more in a "find the lore" approach rather than being cutscene driven (anyone notice those books on hospice care?), each heist level alternates with a shopping or downtime level that you can either explore or just speed through depending on your interest in that. There was also some care clearly put into making the world very interactive, though this typically amounts to just picking the item up and moving it around. The sticky-note system lets you leave tips & messages for your friends to see whenever they play through a level, akin to the Talos Principle's graffiti except you can actually type whatever you like on the note. The notes are also small enough in size that someone worried about potential spoilers can avoid zooming in to look at them.

The gameplay itself has all the right tools for a stand-out puzzle game, though most of the levels are largely "I know I'm supposed to use this device, lets watch for where I use it". By the time you're given all the tools at once and aren't being especially corraled, the game is over. I ended up with 6.2 hours, and I spent some extra time on certain levels playing around with how smoothly & automated I could make things...building long batch files while in the "Casing" mode so I could sail through the non-casing mode with good timing and a few blink commands rather than frequently accessing the deck. If you have several friends who play it, you may get some extra playtime by trying to beat your friend's fastest times on the various heists...at the time I played it, none of my friends had given it a go.

I highly recommend playing it if the concept sounds up your alley, but I'd wait for it to go on sale, or wait for the Workshop to add new levels or the like (I'm posting this review just a few days since release, so take that into consideration relative to whenever you're reading this review. New maps are created using Dark Radiant, see here ).