Recent reviews by HeavyReigns

I've always loved typing games for as long as I can remember, and CozyTyper does a great job of being an enjoyable one. It's highly customizable, anywhere from letting you set challenges to your own preference or pace to changing the aesthetics. I really like the rainy backgrounds! It's pretty cute, and it's something meant to be put down and picked back up in whatever intervals you desire. I definitely look forward to playing a little bit every day.

I'm really sad to give this a thumbs down, because it's not a bad game, per se. You can tell so much love and care went into it. The art is beautiful, I really enjoyed the voice-acting, and I thought the characters were interesting. Especially Mr. Voice! However, Fran Bow is one of my favorite games of all time, and Little Misfortune - despite being set in the same universe - sadly doesn't even remotely compare. There's just so much that felt off about it, and it kept me from completely enjoying it the way I would have liked.

First thing that bugged me was that they nixed exploring and puzzles almost entirely. The game is extremely linear and requires very little thought, as you can just about run straight through. It attempts to stress this idea that your choices matter, but in reality, your choices only affect superficial things. Much to my disappointment, the story also felt very shallow. As soon as you start to uncover the truth and get involved with the more interesting parts of this game's universe-- boom! The game is over (it ended up taking me 2.5 hours to beat it, I think), and I was left feeling like I got very little from the story. Misfortune's background is very tragic, but it's honestly so overt about it at every turn that it was kind of off-putting. I wasn't a huge fan of the offbeat humor constantly being shoved in my face either. It really ruined the mood of the game for me. Maybe they were going for something a little bit different with the tone than Fran Bow, and that's okay, but it just wasn't for me.

That said, it's a fun enough adventure game on its own. Just try not to compare it to Fran Bow too much and you'll probably enjoy it.

There's not much more I can say that hundreds of other people haven't already, so instead I'll just let my hours played do the talking. Here in Stardew Valley, I can be the gay sword-wielding farmer I always aspired to be. :')

I rarely buy games at full price, but this one is worth it.

Spooky Ghosts Dot Com is a charming Metroidvania platformer with a Halloween-ish theme. Combining two of my favorite things - Metroivanias and Halloween - was already enough to sell me, but the fact that it manages to do it well is a huge plus. It does difficulty right, for one thing. I ended up dying a lot (many times on embarrassingly stupid things, I confess), but I was always able to learn more about my environment and how to better take on a boss with each death. I never felt like I was just running into a brick wall over and over. It's hard to do that well, so major kudos to the dev!

The game is short and simple, and it's creative with the things it offers. It's certainly worth a look if you enjoy Metroidvanias.

As someone who deeply loves horror, I've been putting off playing Layers of Fear for quite a while. On one hand, I've heard many glowing reviews for the atmosphere and story. On the other, I've also heard many complaints towards a repetitive, cheap jumpscare fest. After delving into the game pretty thoroughly, I can safely say that both sides are true. Mostly.

Where the atmosphere is concerned, there is an obvious attention to pain-staking detail everywhere. And I do mean everywhere. Intricate decor on cabinets, etchings on the walls, little imperfections on floors, furniture... there's almost no two assets that are alike, and that's honestly really incredible. You can tell the devs put a lot of love and care into building a beautiful environment. They also have a good grasp on making a tense atmosphere as well, but... that's about where the good qualities end for me.

Layers of Fear opens itself up with mystery, giving you very little information about who you are and what's going on. Unfortunately, it also stays that way. The more you learn about the main character and his family, the more questions there are. It seems as if the game wants you to sympathize with them through a tragic story, but I found it hard to build up much sympathy for the main character - and to an extent, his family - when we see no background or character building of any kind. Who are these characters and why should I care about them? The husband is a painter who is also an unrepentant jerk, the wife plays piano, there's a kid. That's all we're really allowed to know. The Inheritence DLC does expand on this, however, and we're able to learn a little more about this family through the eyes of the child.

The story fails to entice, but surely that stellar atmosphere will pull through! Well, it might have, if not for the game's need to bombard me with jumpscares every five minutes. For a jumpscare to be worthwhile, they need to be spread out and built up to. Very much not the case in Layers of Fear. In a game like this, I want to be able to soak up the atmosphere. Instead, I was being pushed through door after door with books flying in my face, dolls jumping out, environments suddenly warping... Good grief. You name it, it probably happened. It got old real fast, and whatever eerie feeling of tension I had was gone. At that point, I was just plugging through the game to figure out the story and to get achievements.

What killed the last of the tension for me was that there's no real sense of threat. Running headlong into the monster has no consequences and is - in fact - encouraged for two of the better endings. ...What?

And the last nail in the coffin? Replaying the game for the other endings out of curiosity (and achievements) showed me just how dull and lifeless this game really is at its core. It boiled down to walking in and out of rooms, walking in circles until something happens, walking in and out of more rooms, waiting for this cutscene to pass, a couple not-really-puzzles, boom done! I've played other walking simulators with more stimulating gameplay, so this one certainly has no excuse.

I'm probably going to finish up the achievements for the DLC and then... probably never touch this game again. It's breathtakingly beautiful, but that's all it has going for it.

To preface: I love the first Costume Quest. I play it every fall. It's just one of those feel good Halloween season games for me, and it never gets old.

This one? Eh, I'm sad to say, I was looking forward to it being over. It borrows a lot from the original game, including maps, quests, and character models. In fact, there is very little that's actually original in this game, and the things that are original are pretty uninspired, tbh. The music was pretty boring and lackluster too, and I found myself longing for the old battle theme a lot. Or at least for something with a little more oomph, you know?

They changed up some of the core game mechanics and I can't really say it was for the better. You liked being auto-healed after every fight in the first game? Well, too bad! Now you have to backtrack to a heart fountain to heal after just about every battle! It's every bit as annoying as it sounds. Battle stamps are no more, replaced with creepy cards that are a one-use kind of thing and can't be used again until their cooldown (which is usually anywhere from 1-3 battles). It's not too horrible, so long as you use them wisely. There are some pretty awesome cards in the mix, and they can come in quite handy in a pinch. A lot of the costumes were kind of lame and left me disappointing, but that's just my opinion.

All-in-all, it just felt like a half-assed rehash of the first game, and that's a huge bummer! I really wanted to love this game, but it really just kinda... lacked the charm and fun of the first game. It's an easy 100% if you're into achievements, and that's about it.

Man, this game is a headache. Yeah, I know. Real rich from someone who played 10+ hours of it and got all the achievements. "Why didn't you stop playing it then?" Because I wanted the achievements! And because I'm a glutton for punishment, apparently. This game was gifted to me by a sadistic friend who I'm sure is overjoyed to know that I was in pain throughout. That Veteran achievement can go cuddle with a cactus.

It's addictive, mindless fun. There's honestly not much to it: you zoom back and forth on your broom, picking up children, and lobbing them into your cauldron for points before the time runs out. But honestly after you get enough upgrades, you'll almost never run out of time and you can just zoom past the Dads - the only enemy in the game - with ease. It kind of loses its challenge at that point and isn't as much fun, but it's very cute (in a morbid sorta way) and enjoyable.

It's not really worth $10, imo, so wait until it goes on sale. However, it is a very cute Halloween-themed Match 3. I got it solely because it was Halloween-themed (hey, I like Halloween, alright?) and was honestly surprised by how decent it was. The music was the highlight of the game for me, honestly. Very beautiful, reminded me of Castlevania, and it was nice to listen to while I played. The mechanics themselves are simple and not overtly challenging. It's one of those games that's fun to play when you just want to relax.