Recent reviews by DeskLazer

Steam really needs a neutral option. I loved the first two games, and 3 had its own charm and introduced us to dominic armato, the voice of guybrush and what I now associate in my head with the character. the later games in the series (included the much maligned escape) were less memorable and 'play through once and never again' kind of entries. this falls in the latter camp.

as others have alluded to, the game is pretty solid but falls apart towards the end and last act. there's a lot of nostalgia being milked throughout this game, and while some of it is welcome, plenty of it could've just been skipped because a lot of the jokes and moments fall flat (albeit I personally wanted more interaction/lines with murray!)

they make a lot of meta jokes about some of the older games and about their bad endings and then leave a bad ending at the end of this. after you're done with the game go back to the scrapbook and check out the developer's note, which I think helps ease the pain of the bad ending.

most of the early puzzles were pretty easy (even on hard mode) but some of the worst game design things that ron talked about on grumpy gamer are here, including some of the inane map puzzles in twisty areas (I think there were 3-4 in this game?) where I even ran into a glitch and had to brute force it because the map didn't match the landscape. there's a TON of backtracking and moments where you know what you need to do but dread having to go back 6-7 screens to the location you need to reach because you know the next part of the puzzle which is unfortunate. the hint system is very welcome here for the late-game puzzles because some of them were annoying.

the voice acting is great; the music was less memorable this time, and the new variants on old themes was a little lacking. the remasters of 1 & 2 had terrific bombast and power in their production; this game everything felt a little dulled and muted which is a shame, since some of these melodies and themes are ones that hit hard typically, but these 'reduxes' are just kinda flat.

okay, this is getting long. I do still recommend playing this if you're as huge a fan as I am of the series, but temper expectations (hell, the game tells you exactly this as you get to the end) and you may just dig it. I'm gonna go back to playing the old games and remasters because they are superior in almost every way to this entry.

The less you know about this game going in, the better. It's funny, interesting, twisted (much like you'd expect for a Daniel Mullins game, since you're likely reading this well after this game released). I laughed until I cried at times, and most of the games and puzzles are pretty frustration-free and fairly easy, but some will tease your brain enough to make this interesting.

There's a lot of meta humor and meta-things-you-can-do which I won't spoil until you've finished the game at least once.

Each of the "games" are super well thought out and could be their own standalone games, but you get them all in one narrative. Pretty awesome.

It's hard to describe for those who haven't played it or if you're one of those folks who don't like the 'games as art' concept. It's hard to call it a game, but it is quite a journey and worth taking. So much meta commentary and humor, heartbreak, sadness, joy, glee, and poignancy.

There's puzzles, but nothing that takes any sort of real brainpower. There's a LOT of text and dialogue, so be prepared to do some reading, and lots of walking and observing. Something might show up at the corner of your eye, your job would be to investigate it.

I love that this exists.

I feel like Act V starts to wear out its welcome towards the end, but everything up until then (and the epilogue) is a delight. Make sure you dial the phone number in real life, too.

My kid is obsessed with this game and I have to admit, I got a little into it too. Make sure you invest in upgrades and use those gold pieces!

There is a 'beta' version available on the website if you want to see what it's like, but it'll probably just end up making you want to buy the real thing and support the dev. Hope to see more pieces at some point since we've got nearly all of them.

BTW, you do NOT need to have the game running to earn, you can setup your run, close it, and come back to it (a la cookie clicker). The gold pieces should also not move until your next login, otherwise it's like every 24 hours or something.

Play this for the new updated soundtrack alone. Andrew Hulshult is incredible. The id vault is a cool piece of history too.

Played during the free play weekend; leveling is a huge grind, might be on-par or worse than nba 2k. Such a bummer if you just want to play an offline single player mode, it's bare bones as hell. The only 'exposition' in your story is podcasts that play in the background while you're setting up for a match and they talk about 'an upcoming player.' No press conferences or rivalry drama to speak of, just play and win stuff with terrible cutscenes.

A few times, my racket disappeared into the ground as my player was celebrating a win, which for a game that doesn't even remotely tax my RTX 3070, in 2024, is abysmal. Lots of other random graphical glitches abound.

No match commentary, audio is lackluster in general with the on-court sounds and crowd too.

They did a 'battle pass' system for extra cosmetics but all the good stuff is unsurprisingly behind a premium paid pass. Also, some courts are unavailable to unlock forever unless you pre-ordered the game, which includes all nighttime majors, which is a real headscratcher. You can't even buy them if you didn't go in on the pre-order.

2k continues to prove that they're basically EA but (probably) worse.

A satisfying gameplay loop, and no real ramifications for making mistakes or dying, which is why so many people call this 'cozy.' If there is a game over for failing, I haven't seen it.

You've read every other review talking about the main gameplay, but the loop goes like this: dive underwater and snag some fish. Take it to your sushi restaurant and sell it. Then stuff starts getting weird and fourth-wall breaking and I don't want to spoil too much else.

Every time you think you're about to get bored, they throw a new minigame or story element that surprises you, makes you laugh, then makes you want to play more. You can rush to just beat the story but I found myself invested in the characters and wanting to help them out (except for a few, but that's how it goes!)

There's a reason this game won so many awards. While not truly "indie" it's still a great game and worth having in your library.

Super fun and adorable free game. I don't know why some reviews fall off of here, but if you don't speak/read Japanese languages, here's how to get it switched to English:

1. Go to options (3rd down on the list)
2. Use RB/R1 on your controller or E on the keyboard to go one panel to the right
3. Go down to the 3rd option and use the left or right arrow/stick/dpad to change it to English (or your preferred language)
4. Enjoy the game!

Fun gameplay loop, you make a mess in the house and keep getting more absurd stuff to ruin the house more while being a cute doggo. Short and sweet, you can likely finish this within an hour, but my kiddo loves to keep playing this over and over to just control a doggo.

The artwork is weird, the story is a little messy, but there's a charming game hidden underneath all of this. It's mainly QTEs and a lot of decision making, the latter which I preferred, but the story is really enjoyable to play as a group, and I've never seen one that allows up to 6 or 8 people to help make decisions.

This is another one of those 'games as art' and storytelling heavy, not a lot of actual 'gameplay' is involved but it's really compelling and I definitely connected with some of the characters, even if the dialogue didn't match what I selected.

Would love to see more games like this, but maybe with a little more gameplay sprinkled in. Still, a worthy game to pick up, especially on sale.

Played this back in the day when it was an Unreal Tournament mod, so my steam play time isn't indicative of how much I played this at LAN parties and the like. A lot of depth, it moves fast, and you can easily accidentally kill your teammates. The original version had some game breaking challenges like 'requires engineer, but your engineer just died' kind of scenarios. I have not run into the same problems with the modern version.

Great game, 100% truly free, and somehow they're still updating it in 2023 with a brand new (!!!) campaign. Def play this with a group of friends for best results.