Recent reviews by Fellshard

Thanks to my brother for the gift; he knows me well. :)

Myst lodged itself into my brain as a kid. And then Riven joined it a few years later. I still look back on it as one of the formative highlights for telling stories and worldbuilding in games, for me. It's what I'd consider Cyan's magnum opus.

Coming back to this, now, a full quarter-century later, and it's delightful. While the game is not precisely as I remember it - many things have certainly been moved around on certain islands - it has captured the majority of the locations, structure, and world of the original, and even tweaks some of its puzzles to expand on the world a bit more. Die-hard fans may not care for these changes, and I wasn't sure what to think of them myself; but they won me over, I think, once I saw that they had kept the best puzzles intact, and had mostly layered the new puzzles over the top, and once or twice reframed the old puzzles to have new implications.

All this to say: Cyan and Starry Expanse have created an experience that feels genuine to the original work, and gave me some new puzzles to chew on, so I wasn't just speedrunning through the game. And for new players, I'm fairly confident they will experience the same world as I did back then, without the hindrances of changing discs (though the occasional crash does still occur; so keep saving periodically!)

A last note: while the screenshot feature is helpful, it does not always capture fine details such as engravings on metal. Use a notebook of some kind where you can, because it will complement your findings well. And there's just something to using notebooks in a puzzle game that scratches an itch, y'know?

And if you enjoy this, give the original a try, too. I think the pixel hunting aspects may be *easier* once you know what to look for, and you'll find some new surprises as you do. It's still a delightful work of craftsmanship to this day, despite its Macromedia jank.

Skip finding every collectible - they're just not gonna add much except for the achievements. Getting to 99% exploration on each map means you've seen all there is to see. The presentation of the main story is where it's at its strongest, and the longer you spend on the fringes, the more likely you are to get bitten by jank. Just enjoy the main ride, chase down any secrets you do find, and don't sweat the rest.

If you like Myst, you'll probably enjoy this.

The game is very clearly a love letter to the series, and for the most part, it succeeds - a decent light plot, an interconnected world to figure out, and a lot of puzzles.

The only downside, from what I saw, were some of the clues left to decipher specific puzzles - not all of them were clear to decipher at all, and from the forums, they baffled some others as well. There's also a couple cases where it would help to have more room to experiment with individual mechanisms in isolation to understand them better before solving them.

Those are mostly quibbles - all 'round, it definitely feels like I hoped it would. Kudos, all, and thanks for the fun time. :)

DISCLAIMER: I am acquainted with one of the developers, and received a key on the game's launch. That said, I will still try to give this as objective a review as I'm able. :)

Certainly in early access as of writing, but with the core of the game solidly in place!

Element TD is a well-loved mod from the elden days of Warcraft 3; and in light of that game's recent trashing of its modding community, it's only appropriate this new title make a showing now.

The game's center is certainly a classic tower defense, but what makes it feel distinct is not just the conceit of there being elemental tower types, but rather how the different towers are designed. Many of the towers rely on behaviour that shifts over time and range, and all towers except some of the weakest and strongest have classical elemental alignment effects (50% vs. one element, 200% vs. another). This means you have to be thinking along multiple axes as you're designing your lanes, and making sure you're diversified enough to match the waves up ahead. It also means there's a role for every kind of tower, whether mixed element or single element. This isn't GemCraft; mixing elements gives you a whole new kind of tower, not just a blending of properties between two towers. This means each tower is a crafted design, and it shows.

Multiplayer has a bit of latency to your actions currently, but it still plays just fine - the delay isn't as critical as it would be in an action game, at least at low-level waves. The formula is straightforward: the first person to kill a wave pushes the next wave out for everyone, so clearing speed becomes a major strategic factor. No more bulking up your gold for later splurging; you have to be acting quickly to stay ahead of your opponents. With several configuration options at hand, you can set how consistent the playing field will be between you and your opponents.

Lastly, there's replay options embedded into the game: you can replay your old matches, and the matches of people in the leaderboards, giving you lots of opportunities to learn from how other people play and to develop new strategies; or to figure out how everything's gone wrong the last time you tried maxing Darkness too early. *cough*

All this is probably old hat to traditional Element TD players; having never played the original, I've only heard of it by second-hand. I can see elements of the Warcraft 3 legacy still hovering around (literally, in one case), but that doesn't seem to be holding it back at all. It's easy to jump in and learn, and I can see it taking a while to master and fine-tune engines for each map - an honest plus for a solid Tower Defense game.

- Hopefully the multiplayer can be tuned to be just a tad more responsive; it's the most noticeable pain point for me at the moment, though veterans of the game probably notice balance issues more than I would.
- The music is not the most dynamic, and feels a bit soft for the genre of game. Some rise and fall would be nice to have, especially when you get a new element to spend.
- There's some frame loss issues at higher creep levels / when more towers are placed. Hopefully that'll be something that can be optimized as the full launch approaches. Again, it's not something that seems to hold the gameplay back much, but it would be fun to see waves of your foes dying in glorious 60fps someday. :)

Recommended, with caveats.

As Metroidvanias go, the /mechanics/ are tight - combat and movement usually feel pretty decent, with a couple of quibbles for a few rooms. Equipment feels SotN-like, with items often hiding special effects that you have to discover by use.

The random generation is a nice thought, but the game's gating is strongly linear, and items generally seem to end up in the same regions, so it's at most an aesthetic difference which rooms connect which major points each time. Don't go in expecting a roguelike either - the map generates once when you start a given savefile, and doesn't randomize on death.

The art is quite pretty pixelwork, but the designs of most zones aren't distinct enough to make the enemies truly shine.

All-in-all, it's a solid platformer, with a modicum of replayability if you really feel like being a maximal item completionist, or hitting up the highest difficulty, or trying a different class. As it stands, I'm satisfied with the 10-hour playthrough on regular, and have no inclination to return for more - I feel as if I've mastered the game sufficiently that just adding more health / damage to push through wouldn't be all that much more fun.

Unfortunately riddled with bugs; even the level design doesn't really play to the strengths of the core mechanics. Unpolished, and likely to remain so, from what I'm seeing; let this one cook a while longer before you head in to try it out.

A gorgeous, well-tuned game with an incredibly consistent aesthetic.

Exploration is gorgeous, each region having its own influence, native peoples and threats, and even their own way of hiding secrets.

Speaking of secrets - this game is packed full of them. You'll be hard-pressed to 100% it, but the exploration is usually so engaging that it doesn't end up being all that frustrating.

The music by Disasterpeace is simply stellar, a combination of the lo-fi nature of Fez and the horror lessons he learned from scoring 'It Follows'. It sets the mood for both exploration and combat in equal measure, flowing gently and smoothly between each one. Superb sound design all 'round.

There is some narrative structure, but mostly ambient; dialogue is at most a couple of picture panels played in sequence. Don't expect any Fez-like decoding here - the focus is on the action and exploration.

I definitely recommend giving this game a shot. Enjoy the sights, be curious, and don't let the perceived difficulty get you down; you'll steadily learn how to deal with the encounters. They give you all the tools you need to succeed, you just have to dig a little, and learn how to pick them out.

Factoids:
- Played with the Steam controller, and it was pretty much perfect for this game.
- The Kickstarter was one of the finest I've ever been a part of; Heart Machine kept in contact, informed us of plans and changes, and in general was very humble and professional. And they delivered and supported this game well in the months after. A developer well worth supporting.

My friend got a bit upset because I said something vile to him, and it's this game's fault.

I still can't figure out why he has no memory of it...

Slick gameplay, tight controls, lightning speed... what's not to love in this blazing blast of a metroidvania?

It's a fascinating take on narrative. That's the most I'm going to say to avoid spoiling anything. Suffice to say, if the storytelling aspect of games carries any interest to you, this game's worth a shot.

The game is very brief; it even states that it is best experienced by setting aside an hour and a half to complete it in one sitting. Consider that as a factor before you buy. I also don't expect much replay value due to the narrative system used; in fact, multiple playthroughs would more than likely detract from the overall experience, not enhance it.

If, however, you don't care to play it, I have an experimental playthrough below. It _will_ spoil the game, however, so it is absolutely not recommended to view more than 5-10 minutes unless you plan on skipping the game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RekJAwHdA_0