Recent reviews by Festive Erma

Loved the reboot of Doom in 2016 and was so excited for this game.
The game is really good, but a lot of changes to the formula from the 2016 version I feel was for the worse and I'm missing them.

Eternal embodies the arcade feel of Doom and throws away all of the atmosphere, detail, and polish of the 2016 version. Weapons in 2016 were found on the ground and had story behind them where you found them. Here they are glowing floating pickups that you just run into.

Suit powerups in 2016 was found through cards in dead suited UAC elites in secret places. Here you get them from ghosts (?), that just stand around in random places.

Combat and movement is fantastic though and it really carries the game.
Personally I was a big fan of the lore and story, especially how the lore interacted with the gameplay. Now that has been thrown out completely and I can't help to feel the game could have been much better with it.
I honestly cannot see how floating question marks and och gamey contrivances made for a better experience, why break immersion intentionally when you have such good lore and immersion otherwise?

Gameplay is still fun though but I really prefer the 2016 edition. If you did for the same reasons as me you might want to hold off on this one.

Rougelikes are my favourite kind of games. But I just can't get into this one. Everything is great about the game in terms of story and artstyle but the gameplay is terribly unbalanced.

In good rougelite games improving your skill can make your runs go further even if the random elements of the game screws you over. In this game there is just is no skill involved.
You start with low stats that can only be upgraded with cards that drop randomly. You fight random enemies who almost always have higher health/defense than you.
I've done runs where I've gotten good upgrades immediatly and went far and I've done games where I just get no upgrades and take 4 damage within the 4th hexes outside the safe zone. Skill is not a factor here and it's infuriating. I can play out a strategy but if I don't get any good upgraes I just can't progress.

In one round I got great upgrades in the first world and rand though it no problem, in the second world there was only one 1x1 exit from the safe zone that was covered in ice. I went out on the ice and slid right into a boss enemy with 20+ higher stats and died instantly.

There is also no progression in the game. In good rougelites you feel like your run mattered in some way because you unlocked something or got further or discovered something new. Not here. No unlocks. No upgrades. It's just the same thing over and over.

I just can't reccomend this game. There are so many good rougelikes that you can play and get better at. And then there's Loot Rascals where you die 50 times and don't get any further than you did when you started.

Just plain boring. Obviously inspired by Portal, "The Turing Test" is missing a bit of everything. The story is uninteresting and I managed to figure out the twist after about 5 minutes of play. When a story is that basic a lot of the dialouge becomes unintersting as it just leads up to something you've known all along.

Additionally to the weak story:

The Location is boring: White rooms without character. At least portal had interesting details that made you wonder. This game has white walls, some lights and some ladders.

There's no humor: The game takes it self very seriously and there is nothing close to a joke.

Unpolished: Many things feel unpolished. Details are non existant, people look completely off. You can pick up and look at random objects for no reason. When I pick up a note I think in my head that it should have some scribbles on it or anything. But no. Blank. Computer? Blank. Random red tag? Blank.

I cannot recommend The Turing Test as it failed to engage me in any way.

I do not like this iteration of OMD. The free to play model has me playing with the same traps for 10 levels in a row and with the random chests you don't get to upgrade the things you want to use. The game is played on servers so there is even a certain amount of lag in single player.

The game makes you grind the same levels in a row to maybe get upgrades for traps that maybe are effective. And it's just, so, Boring. Instead of getting a new traps every couple of levels with a campain and a story that unfolds you play the same levels over and over with the same traps over and over. The game is also insanely difficult. I played both OMD and OMD 2 and I would consider myself an experienced player. And STILL I cannot complete the first level on war mage. I would like to use a different strategy but I can't get new traps unless I grind the previous levels multiple times.

There's maybe 20 characters but you have to play the free ones or get extremely lucky in a random chest to play them. What's the point? They're only locked behind this arbitrary wall to give an insetive to pay money to unlock them. Why not just have a regular business model?

I cannot possibly say that I would ever play this over OMD 2. The free to play model has absolutely ruined a game series I used to adore.

Abzu is a short diving exploration experience. It's a pure exploration game that rewards slow methodical play. And it's very beautiful. I'd reccomend going in blind with 1.5 hour to spare, oh and use a controller.

Fantastic game, do yourself a service and experience it for yourself.

I love this game. Very well made, very fun elements very good stealth mechanics. And the story is a brilliant 10/10. I cried at serveral points.
You don't need to have played other metal gears to get into this but it helps a lot.

If you like steath games this is a must buy!

This is my go to casual relax game. There is no stress. There is no objective if you don't want there to be. You just take care of your farm and chill. Strongly reccomend if you have some time to put in.

Solid clicker. If that's what you're into

It's a solid FPS about killing lots of monsters.

Combat is very fun and free flowy with double jumps, powerful weapons and a focus on moving around instead of taking cover. Combat is pretty much all you do though, if you want an FPS with a truly engaging story this is not the game for you.

The story was very interesting and i was very engaged by it, reading every data log and so on. However nothing ever pays off, the story just ends unfinished without any real feeling. As someone who really wanted a big finale to everything I was dissapointed with the, in my opinon, abrupt ending.

However the game is very well made, runs very well, and is extremely fun despite being repeteative.

(I'll be honest I have not tried either snapmap or multiplayer because I'm simply not interested.)

10 hours of shooty shooty bang bang if you're up for it.

A very different rpg. The story is probably one of the coolest things you'll ever play with an amazing cast. The RPG portion however is pretty bad. I was constantly annoyed with the rpg part of the game getting in the way of the story. But that seems to just be me.

Strongly recommended