Recent reviews by Kazrak

I'd describe this game as 60% story, 30% combat, and 10% porn, and all three parts are well-done.

Breaking that down even more:
The story is deep and resonant. Droid makes you care about these characters. You feel bad when you have to tell Emily something that you know will disappoint her. You can feel how Emily is torn between her duty as the crown princess and her personal desires. The background is solid and elegantly ties together Arthurian myth and the modern day. The villains all are clearly the heroes of their own stories, and are making their choices on that basis.

The combat is surprisingly deep. Gems and companion abilities can combine in complex ways, and there are multiple viable builds which change as your companions, available gems, and enemies evolve.

And, there's porn. I'll forgo details, but I doubt you're looking over a porn game unless you're at least a little interested. While sex is often important to the plot, outside of that you can choose how much you wish to partake in. There is an achievement for 'staying as true to Emily as possible', which basically means avoiding optional sex scenes. I suspect that most players will only get that achievement by deliberate effort.

There's an inherent tension in a sequel. How do you provide more of the same without just providing more of the same? How do you add on to what you've done without overstuffing it?

Long-awaited sequels have it even worse. The devs have had years to think up ideas, and now that it's The Sequel there's a temptation to add in everything you thought of for the first one but couldn't use, plus everything else cool you've thought of since. The expectations, likewise, are incredibly high.

Psychonauts 2 manages that balance nigh-perfectly. It gives more Psychonauts - more fun with psychic powers, more of Raz moving from "annoying newbie" to "that cool kid that saved us all". It digs into character moments that make you really think about how and why these people became who they are. It includes at least two twists that are clearly foreshadowed but no less stunning when they hit.

And it's got that great psychic platforming action from the first game, only repackaged for modern machines. The character animation is just stunning - there were several points where Raz's face was filled with beautifully-rendered emotion.

There are frustrating bits. The jumping controls are still more than a bit fiddly sometimes, requiring several tries to make a tricky jump to pick up a collectible. Finding those last few figments in a level can involve running through it several times, only to realize they were hiding right near your starting point.

But those are nits. Against all odds, Double Fine has created a worthy successor to the original Psychonauts, one that can become as beloved as the original.

And I don't think I'll ever be able to look at "It's a Small World" the same way again.

This is a cute, quick little puzzle game. It's the sort of game that you can get stuck at, put it down for an hour, and come back to find the solution staring you in the face. It's not a long game - took me about 2 hours all told.

The ambiance of the game is excellent. It looks beautiful, and the music fits the aesthetic perfectly.

Carto is a lovely little puzzle game with a fun mechanic - you can control the map pieces like they're Carcassonne tiles. The puzzles are well-designed, by and large, although a few of them involve interesting leaps of logic, and a few others involve wandering around until something happens.

The story is cute, with interesting characters. I found myself wanting to come back as much for the next bit of the story as the next puzzle.

Recommended if you like light puzzle games.

This is a beautiful game.

Yes, it's visually appealing. The backdrops are gorgeous, and the conceit of playing on signs, pieces of paper, and digital displays works incredibly well. But that's not what I mean.

It's beautifully constructed. The puzzles are all challenging without being impossible. The difficulty curve is near perfect. The ending is exactly as long as it needs to be. The whole game is exactly as long as it needs to be. There is little padding.

It makes you wish for more, even while realizing that more would not improve it, merely dilute it.

You will either love this game or hate it.

Here's the thing - this doesn't need to be a video game. All of the puzzles in here could be published in a book and they'd work equally well. (Arguably better, since you could write on them.)

If you're looking for a game that will give you nice computer-assisted ways to decrypt things, this isn't it.

If you're looking for something that will require you to pull out a pad of paper and start scribbling potential solutions, this is it.

There isn't a lot here, but what's here is very nice. The puzzles build well, if quickly. The difficulty curve resembles a cliff face in spots. A more-advanced hint system would be nice.

Overall, I'm enjoying it, but I freely acknowledge that I'm not normal.

This is a Zachtronics game, so you should know what you're getting into. There are puzzles to work through. There's a storyline loosely wrapped around the puzzles. There's a cool solitaire game.

However, the difficulty curve doesn't spike the way most Zachtronics games do. Unlike the others, the main storyline is not space-constrained. This means that any solution works, not just one that fits into the constrained space given. (A recent update adds some space-constrained puzzles, but they're an optional end chapter.)

Add in an easy-to-use way to add your own puzzles, and you've got hours of enjoyment. Highly recommended.

Did you like Hexcells but felt that there weren't enough ways it could bend your brain? Do you want to try Minesweeper's evil step-uncle? Does staring at an array of circles trying to figure out what bit of information you're missing sound like a great way to spend some time?

If you answered yes to all of these, Patterna is your game.

This is now my go-to game for a short bit of mental exercise. I can pop up a random puzzle and spend 2 to 5 minutes working through it, or failing at it. Hardcore mode adds that little frisson of worry where one wrong click will cause you to lose the level and get an entirely new one in its place.

Ignore the name. The name has nothing to do with anything about the game.

This is a pure puzzle game. One part 3D sokoban, one part Koenigsburg bridges, and about fifteen parts of evil genius. It's a game of discovery, where you may not know exactly what you need to do.

Either you're looking at this description and wondering why anyone would want this, or you're salivating at the prospect. If you're in the first group, go buy a different game. Life is too short to play games that aren't up your alley. I won't judge. There's a lot of popular games out there that aren't my speed.

If you're in the second group, you should have already played this game. But if you haven't, buy it now.