Recent reviews by Ko

Meadow is a TMO (tiny multiplayer online) game with a simple premise: become an animal; explore the world; gather items to unlock emotes, skins, steam achievements, and new animals; and encounter others so that you can team up (or not) to search for and break obelisks for faster item-aquiring. It simplicity and non-toxic environment bundled with its soothing music and artistic patchwork visuals make it well-worth the 49 cents I spent, but I would also recommend it at full price. The only big downsides are the somewhat small world and potential for having to wander the world alone.

You explore a fairly small world with your animal, collecting items on your own or joining a group to break obelisks and receive even more items. The only way you can communicate with other players is via a limited set of visual symbols and emotes, and provided you have some creativity, there is a short learning curve to understanding them. For example a player may say [hourglass] [group of animals] to you, indicating to wait for the group to gather back together, or [obelisk] [arrow] meaning "there is a obelisk in this direction." The limited speaking not only makes the characters that much more animalistic, it also prevents players from being overly-cruel. I've only encountered one "mean" player, who was just making the "funny face" emote at me over and over. It's a safe environment for players of any age, and it's fun to encounter new baby badgers and lead them around, or to encounter seasoned players who know how to search for obelisks. There are also dedicated roleplay servers.

The only complexities to the game, really, are learning to navigate the map (the in-game map is limited to showing the "center tree" and other animals, represented as diamonds,) breaking the obelisks, and wiggling up mountains and other slippery terrain obstacles to navigate or collect items. The obelisks are all different and require between 2 and 6 animals to break; sometimes a obelisk will require specific animals, which means it's good to travel with a diverse cast of partners, if possible. This makes it worthwhile to not only wait for the slower, smaller animals in your group, but to also play as them, yourself. Diversity is key to breaking the larger obelisks, which tend to give the best items. Realistically, though, you can also do just fine wandering around with one other person or just on your own.

Assuming you don't own any other Shelter content, you begin as a badger cub with a few emotes, one skin (appearance) option, and a single voice. The items you collect will help you to unlock new voices, skins, animals, and emotes. Owning just the Meadow base game, you will unlock the following animals, in this order: badger, frog, rabbit, goat (deer), fox, pheasant, and hedgehog. If you own other Shelter content you can play as (depending on the content) a lynx, lynx cub, adult badger, bear cub, eagle, wolf, or baby elephant. Owning other Shelter content gives you some additional perks, like some "3D emojis" and unique skins. Each animal has a different number of skins and voices and a variety of emotes to collect. Animals also have different abilities; for example, the frog jumps high and swims quickly in water; the eagle can fly freely but can't land or collect items; the goat can run quickly and jump a moderate height.

From what I have noticed, there are not a lot of people online at any given time. The elephant was just released and so there have been between 30 and 50 people online duruing busy times of day, but I assume that this number will drop back down until there is another update.

Like all Shelter games, Meadow features an environment that looks like a patchwork quilt or a pop-up book; the designs are simple and polygonal, but not ugly. The soundtrack is a combination of music unique to the game as well as select tracks taken from others in the series. As a whole, it is immersive and enjoyable to explore, though it can be difficult to see when it's nighttime.

There aren't many negative things to say about Meadow, really, though a few things do stand out. Some of the hidden steam achievements rely on seasonal-type events (statue collecting in-game) which I'm not a fan of, because I don't like games limiting a player's ability to get the achievements with time-sensitive events. I can only assume the statues will be rotated in and out every now and again.

Additionally, because this is a purely online multiplayer game, your experience will largely depend on how many people are online as well as what time of day you're available to play. And, inevitably, the servers will shut down someday, and hopefully at that time the option for local or single-player play is added.

While there is plenty to unlock, it would be nice if there were more skin and other appearance options available for certain animals. Some animals don't have very many skin colors, like the wolf, which is a popular choice as you might imagine, but it only has four (five if you have other Shelter content) colors. I also didn't know this without looking at a guide, but you can see other people's steam names (if they have the option enabled) by hitting AltRight, which will help you keep track of your friends if a bunch of animals look the same. It would be nice to know how to do this, and other basic things, up front like in a short tutorial.

Getting more into the environment itself, the huge chunks of missing land, where players can just fall off the edge of the world in the middle of the map, are kind of ugly and strange. It would also be nice if it was easier to climb up even short slopes; some animals, like the badger cub, seem to have a really hard time scaling even small rises, and while that is technically realistic, it's irritating when there are so many things to climb, and it doesn't really serve to make the game any more enjoyable.

Finally, I would really like if there was some basic controller support for the emotes. Even being able to map some emotes to buttons would be nice.

All in all, Meadow is well-worth the price regardless of whether you get it on sale or not, if you are inclined toward relaxing casual collecting-and-exploring games. Grab a friend with a copy and have some fun wandering the world, listening to the music and enjoying the artistic environment; explore on your own; or be friends with a nameless stranger for just a little while. It's an endearing, relaxing and immersive step into the imaginary life of a fantasy wild animal.

Recommended with a caveat: Buy it on sale, and only if you have a lot of patience.

Sparkle 2 Evo is a very simple but visually-impressive game about the life of an ever-evolving aquatic microorganism. While it's extremely pretty and has an enjoyable and relaxing soundtrack, its design quirks and repetitive, tedious gameplay make it better suited to those who are very patient and not easily frustrated.


Imagine yourself as a tiny, translucent microorganism, called a Sparkle, swimming in a vast world full of other tiny creatures. Your job is to survive and evolve by eating nutrients scattered throughout your aqueous environment. Sometimes these are free-floating bits of food, but other times you'll need to ram yourself into your competition to take a nibble off of them, too. Avoid the pointy parts of your enemies, and floating barriers, to keep from being knocked around in the environment. After eating enough, you evolve, granting you a new larger size and increasing your capabilities (such as eating speed and movement speed.)

There are about a dozen or so levels in Sparkle 2 Evo. To pass a level you must simply collect all nutrients of a particular color. Green nutrients will contribute to a "patient" and slow herbivorous creature while red ones will increase your creature's speed. Blue nutrients will make your Sparkle more well-rounded. You can collect as many nutrients as you want to in each level as long as you reach the minimum required to move on; you have the option of sticking around to continue collecting nutrients even after you've passed the level.

There are two boss levels. The extent of these fights is limited to you taking small nibbles as you would with any other enemy.

In the optional competitive mode, you play the game with an AI Sparkle that will compete with yours.

This game requires immense patience. Some of the levels have 100-200 nutrients of one color to collect, which is time-consuming and tedious considering the simplicity of the gameplay as a whole. The tradeoff is that the game is actually quite easy if you can get through it without getting bored, and the Steam achievements are easy too.


The standout part of this game is, without a doubt, the visuals. I've got a background in natural sciences and this reminds me exactly of looking at a microscope slide and watching all of the tiny creatures and organic matter floating about. The Sparkle and everything else are semi-transparent, so it really gives the illusion of tiny cellular organisms. The colors of the creatures are bright and vivid, and the designs are varied and interesting. As your Sparkle evolves it assumes a more impressive and customized look depending on what it ate, and it's exciting to see how it will end up in its final stage.

The sound is very well done just as the visuals are, though some background music is definitely more memorable than the rest. It's trance-like and sometimes surreal, and is repetitive enough to keep a feeling of flow for those patient enough to remain focused on the actual gameplay.


I would really like to enjoy this game more as a whole, but there are things that just frustrate me to no end:

The game tells you that there is an advantage to eating just one color of nutrient, which I followed for a while. As time went on I realized that it was actually much better to eat all of the colors, because it evolves your Sparkle faster and seems to increase all of its stats. I don't know why the game suggests not to collect everything. There really is no advantage to sticking with just one color except maybe if you are picky about the final appearance of your Sparkle.

The Sparkle's movement in relationship to the player's controls is sometimes just plain awful. There's a very specific turning radius that makes it really difficult to turn deftly and scoop up nutrients that are right next to you. I've spent so much time just spinning around a nutrient trying desperately to get my Sparkle to eat it, but then having to swim away from it and return to try and pick it up again.

It isn't very clear or obvious how to defeat some of the enemies, and some of them follow you so closely that it's extremely difficult to collect the last bit of them and move on. Enemies don't always have an obvious color, so you might end up collecting the wrong type of nutrient before you realize what you're doing. I also literally could not figure out how to beat one of the bosses without looking at a guide here on Steam telling me how to navigate correctly. Even then it felt clunky thanks again to the Sparkle's poor turning abilities.

At times, nutrients, enemies, or even the Sparkle will get stuck in a barrier which is immensely frustrating. Sometimes they seem impossible to get out, or you have to wait a long time and repeatedly ram your Sparkle into whatever you're trying to collect, hoping you hit it just right and won't bump into the barrier again.

Finally, I still don't know what the point of the Sparkle's special power is or even what it fully does. Playing as a mostly-herbivore, it seemed more like a waste of time to try and use it when I could just be swimming around eating things.


I wish that this game was relaxing for me. I got it cheaply a long time ago and see now why I never really played it much; it's so pretty to look out and sounds good, too, the gameplay is frustrating and requires more patience than I can allot to it. For patient players who can maybe zone out and blissfully swim around as a little creature eating other little creatures, it might be different. It's easy to complete, including its achievements, so there's no reason not to pick it up if you have the time and mind to get through it.

The Long Dark is an enjoyable open-world survival game focused in post-collapse, frozen Canada. It tests the player's ability to survive against increasingly harsh elements and hostile wildlife and forces them to think quickly and on the fly. While it's immersive and has a truly beautiful environment and soundscape, some game mechanics come across as lackluster.


I'm playing version 1.83.

In The Long Dark, you play as a survivor exploring a vast, frozen world in search of supplies and interacting with wildlife either to ensure your survival for as long as possible (survival mode) or advance the storyline (Wintermute/story mode.)

I'm really only going to focus on survival mode in this review. Story mode has yet to be completed (3 of 5 episodes are done) since the game's release.

The character has four elements that they must focus on to maintain their condition (health): hunger, thirst, temperature, and energy/exhaustion. Hunger can be satisfied via hunted or trapped animals, commercial foodstuffs scattered around the map, or some naturally-occurring plant items. Thirst is dealt with by finding clean water or creating clean water over a fire. Cold is managed based on the clothing the player wears, and keeping that clothing well-maintained and dry, as well as by finding shelter and using fires. Finally, energy is managed via rest (sleeping) and not spending too much time climbing, sprinting, or engaging in other arduous tasks.

These four elements together contribute to condition, which will gradually drain if any one element is left unchecked for too long. As condition fades, so do the chances of the character's survival; if the condition reaches zero, the character dies (called fading into the long dark in some circumstances.)

The player will encounter a variety of threats to their condition, including hostile wildlife such as bears and wolves, blizzards, high winds, freezing cold water, the risk of food poisoning, falling, spraining ankles on rough terrain, etc. This forces the player to make important decisions to manage their most critical concerns; should they go out in search of food and risk getting caught in a blizzard, or sit on their dwindling stores and wait for better weather? Should they use their last three rounds of ammo hunting a rare animal, or save it in case a predator attacks? These decisions are critical especially due to the game being perma-death; if the player dies, that's the end of their run for that specific game.

Wandering around in the environment really feels compelling. Some players jokingly call it a "walking simulator" which it really does feel like sometimes, but it's definitely not stress-free. You never know when the weather will change or you'll encounter another obstacle or threat, which keeps you constantly engaged and paying attention. Looking away for even one moment could mean you miss a wolf, or that you pass over a small hunting knife or other useful tool. The feeling of finally leveling up a skill, or figuring out how to effectively kill a wolf, or finding the item you really needed, is very rewarding.


The game is beautiful to look at. It reminds me of watercolor paintings. Almost every model is really well-created and textured. Some are more plain than others but as a whole the environment is very pretty. Truly, one of the nicest-looking games I have played in quite some time.

The sound is equally good. The soundtrack evokes mystery and suspense, and in certain situations serves to warn or to inform. Though there isn't really any persistent ambient music, that's for the better; the sounds of the environment are important for the player to know what's ahead of them.

The environment is fun to explore, and is vast. I've spent nearly 50 in-game days in one particular region just levelling my skills, hunting, and trying to explore all of it, and I'm only now beginning to feel comfortable in my ability to navigate it from memory.


The gameplay overall is enjoyable; feeling that you could die at any moment from making the wrong decision feels very immersive and keeps the player on their toes. There are, however, certain mechanics that I think could be improved upon, the most glaring example being the decay mechanic.

I will admit, I don't really play this game any more without a mod to change decay, because the way it's implemented doesn't make sense to me at all. Decay is based on multiple factors, including how long an item has existed on the map, whether it's been exposed to certain weather conditions, etc. What I really find baffling is that clothing which is left inside decays. As a result, it's possible that you can reach a location and have it be completely devoid of salvageable clothing because it has all decayed away despite being indoors in a warm, protected area. To me, this punishes the player for not exploring all of the map right away. Rather than encouraging players to work on their skills as a whole, or even just play as they choose to at their leisure, it basically forces them to loot places before the items have a chance to disappear. Some of these items are only found in specific places, further pressuring the player to basically run from place to place and collect things before they can settle down and focus on other things.

Another aspect of decay that I don't understand is that once the player reaches the maximum level in cooking, nothing will give them food poisoning except for raw meat. This encourages players to basically collect enormous amounts of meat, cook them all at once, and leave them lying around wherever is convenient on the map and eat them later, fully decayed to 0 quality, without consequence. While I agree that food poisoning should not be as great a risk for those who achieve the maximum cooking level, there should be some other mechanic to counter this. An example could be requiring that the player preserve the food. Maybe they could have to travel to a specific, difficult region to collect salt. The player is capable of getting guts from hunted animals, so it makes sense that they should be able to make something like shelf-stable sausages or similar.

There are other things that I believe deserve some balance and attention. The amount of meat a character can pull from a deer is hardly any at all; it seems that, with increased carcass harvesting skill, it would be fair for the character to be able to harvest more. This would help to balance the fact that wildlife generally becomes more scarce over time.

The character can craft clothing from animal hides, but the wolf skin is only used for a coat despite wolves being abundant. It would be nice if it was possible to craft other clothing items, maybe with the player having the ability to choose between light items with little protection and heavy items with more protection, or similar.

Some quality of life adjustments, like being able to tidy up the interiors of buildings, would be really appreciated too.

I'm only just touching on some of the things that I think could be improved, but there are numerous others. The game is highly entertaining and enjoyable as-is, but parts of it don't feel polished and at times feel outright punishing.


The Long Dark is one of my favorite games, with a beautiful and immersive environment that is endlessly fun to wander through and explore. There are some specific mechanics, like the decay system, that don't make sense to me and that I think could be improved to help balance the game out and make it more enjoyable for players as a whole. Improving the polish on existing mechanics would contribute to the game's longevity. I'm looking forward to the continued development!

Viridi is a relaxing little virtual plant simulation. You begin with certain seeds and can get a free seed each week. Remember to mist your plants every now and again, and watch them grow.

If you want to complete the achievements you will either need to play this game for a very long time, or will need to purchase additional plant seeds, about $10 worth total for all achievements.