Recensioni recenti di Pirill

In one word: derivative. If you're interested in a good RTS with the same vibe, play Starcraft 2 (Wings of Liberty is F2P with the co-op mode AND the extensive custom games arcade included which Stormgate doesn't seem to have an interest in at the time) or find a copy of the original Warcraft 3 that fell off the back of a truck which offers many of the same benefits. This ain't it, chief.

My playtime is not that high but I tried what the early access had to offer and I have enough experience with RTS games that I think I can make a pretty good judgement call about what I saw:

The UI of the menus and presentation was the first thing that hit me. "It's very Starcraft" I told myself with everything laid out and presented in a very similar way. The first impression of the campaign was not an especially good one with the stylized Fortnite-esque art style not quite hitting with the more serious story vibe they were going for on top of just not being very appealing in cutscenes. Mediocre and cliche plot beats, uninspired voice acting and even the music which was a memorable part of its predecessors is not especially notable. After a briefing that once again copies Starcraft's presentation, I'm hit by utterly atrocious performance as the mission begins and the game lags like crazy. My computer isn't the strongest but it's enough to handle even some of the more intense Starcraft 2 custom maps with a lot of units and only mild performance drops but here I've had issues even on low settings with a relatively small number of units present which can't be justified by its visual fidelity.

After restarting everything on low settings, the first few missions felt like a homage to Warcraft 3's hero-focused design. Your main character has a 6 slot inventory and a blink ability you can use to get a few cheeky items hidden around while learning the basics of moving, shooting and so on while the next two missions give you access to the roster of the not-Terran units and buildings. All of these are made trivial by how overpowered your hero unit is and don't make a particularly good attempt to teach you how to play the race's strengths.

This very short lived experience is immediately after blocked by a paywall for the next three missions so that's all there is to it. Oh, and there's no pausing. Or saving for that matter.

Next I moved on to the co-op. Virtually all of it is a 1:1 copy of Starcraft 2, except you only get one free commander and the other five cost $10 each to unlock, twice as much as Starcraft 2 charged. All the missions I played bar one were clones of SC2's without the campaign context to back them up. The whole experience felt like a cheap knockoff copy and the choice to raise the player cap to 3v1 is a dubious one and I'd argue only one of the missions played to its strengths. Poor performance showed its head again, particularly as armies got bigger and certain effects like the not-Protoss pylon field were visible. Moreover, a number of other strange design choices (like making one of the co-op colours dark purple which made it almost impossible to see health bars properly or having a mission with an allied faction that was the same colour as one of the players) made me question the testing that went into it. In the end, it just made me want to go back and play Starcraft 2's co-op instead.

I am not a competitive player so I only did a few games against AI to try out the other races in more detail. This game mode also suffers from interface issues, a lack of lobby chat, a limit to 1v1 and 2v2 games only and other QoL I'd expect. When it comes to the three races, the cartoony artstyle isn't an issue but there's a general lack of attention to detail or polish in most of the details which is evident in fights. The units themselves feel a lot more homogenous and less impactful than the ones in Starcraft ever were and I found myself feeling like I was making a blob of unit soup regardless of whether I went for bio, mech or some other combination of units.

Without going into detail, the species themselves fall into the broad strokes of not-Terran, not-Zerg and not-Protoss and, while they have some innovation, I found it very hard to point at any unit and not just say "This is X from Starcraft/Warcraft" with some variation. Fights felt vague and unclear on why someone was winning or losing beyond having the bigger blob of units because the game seem to lack strength in the rock-paper-scissors unit design and the audiovisual cues needed to quickly relay the state of a fight. On top of that I ran into pathfinding issues with units getting stuck in blobs, leading to many cases where they were either locked in place blocking the path or dragging other units, including enemies, along when moving past them. The only other aspect that stood out was a Warcraft 3 creep camp mechanic which felt lacking to the progression of a game the former displayed. Perhaps at a very high level of play this is different but I can't speak for that.

There are some games for which early access is an opportunity to improve and bugfix a reasonably complete experience, while adding and polishing existing content. This is not one of those games. It feels like the very raw core of an experience that could hypothetically be good eventually, but in its current state is a very underbaked offering that spreads itself too thin in trying to please everyone while not having any identity of its own.

Given its F2P nature and AA studio, I am more lenient with its shortcomings and I'm sure some of the issues I complained about will eventually be fixed but the fact of the matter is that this game exists alongside Starcraft 2 and Warcraft 3 which are playable and far more complete experiences right now and that makes it a lot harder to recommend when it's not just overshadowed but it willingly lies in the shadow of the former two titles. In this environment, a copycat would need to be exceedingly competent, or otherwise innovate to stand out and Stormgate does neither.

It's saying a lot when the first things you see in the game are a paywalled campaign, a paywalled co-op experience, and even a reserved spot for paid cosmetics ON TOP of having an extremely successful Kickstarter and having several paid versions/packs for sale to the point where finding the actual F2P button on Steam was a surprisingly convoluted task. This other review goes into more detail on some of the funding shortcomings.

I cannot in good faith believe this will be a sustainable approach to player retention and monetization when the stigma of such a rudimentary early launch will bleed its player count for a significant part of its upcoming future while at the same time the devs seem more concerned to focus on the esports scene.

Between the distinctive visual style, atmospheric gameplay, compelling world building, unique form of storytelling laden with symbolism and clever homages to its inspirational material, SIGNALIS manages to stand out as a rare indie highlight, so long as you can stomach the esoteric narration style it builds around itself and the gameplay limitations that come with it. An easy recommendation from me and I must admit I'm very curious to see what else the studio will come up with in the future.

SIGNALIS embraces its gameplay influences with a clear nod to your Resident Evils and Silent Hills with their slow and methodical exploration, a top down perspective and a limited inventory and resources. Gameplay takes place in room-based areas, sometimes spanning multiple floors, where main goal is usually solving a sequence of puzzles in order to progress with lore sprinkled throughout the environmental design or written documents/notes. The puzzles themselves are accessible, if a bit tedious, and well-annotated on the map, serving more as an excuse to challenge the player as they navigate the areas full of enemies to ferry the various puzzle items around, or try to loot the rooms thoroughly for the scarce ammo and consumables.

The game offers a good blend of stealth and combat and doesn't punish the player for mixing them up. There are many opportunities to take advantage of both, even if all the game's combat and stealth mechanics are ultimately rather basic. Enemy variety is fairly low and their AI is rudimentary, which works in the game's favour usually, as it makes them predictable, although one particular issue I encountered is that there's no way to tell where patrolling enemies are in their cycle. This led to many cases where I'd walk into a hallway directly into an enemy that was patrolling in front of the door, taking unavoidable damage or having to wait for a minute for their patrol path to reset and hoping the next time I enter the room they'll be in a different position.

I'd also like to briefly touch on a few miscellaneous things SIGNALIS does that make it stand out. Several narrative segments are set in first person, enhancing both the atmosphere and storytelling of those moments. There's also a real focus on inventory management that might put some people off but I felt was very important to achieve the risk-reward gameplay it's going for. Additionally, the game uses radio as both a gameplay and narrative mechanic with some clever puzzles associated with it. A breath of fresh air and a type of tactile mechanic I wish there was more focus on in games.

The artstyle of SIGNALIS stands out as its most striking feature, showcasing a deliberate approach to the stylized aesthetic unlike many other indies doing it as a corner-cutting tactic. The art is sharp and deliberate, both in the low poly models reminiscent of the PS1 era as well as throughout the world. Each room feels purposeful and lived in, with signs, posters and other environmental details sprinkled throughout. The modern engine brings those together in order to allow a fantastic atmosphere to develop and even offers some additional settings to customise the look and feel of your experience such as CRT scanlines or tank controls (if you're a masochist). The occasional perspective shifts, allow the player to more closely examine some story moments or items which definitely reinforces the unique aesthetic the game is going for.

The story cut-ins and cutscene art further contribute to the delightfully dark and surreal storytelling method of the game, using a mixture of the low poly models alongside anime-inspired artwork to convey a distinctive look that I was personally a big fan of. The audio mixing is the final piece of this puzzle, alternating between haunting melodies moments of eerie silence, and the sharp, dissonant tracks during the more tense chase sequences which I can only describe as hammercore. Many of the strong story moments have their impact is greatly elevated by their musical backing and, while the OST is perhaps not a standout by itself, it shines where it needs to the most. It's worth pointing out that both the art and music pay homage to various other media, integrating them into the game's symbolism in a way that adds symbolic depth beyond a simple reference.

The fact that you can find multiple many-hour long story analysis segments online should clue you in on the type of story on display here. While I won't delve into the themes or plot details I can certainly say that it might be polarising depending on what you enjoy from a narrative standpoint. An unreliable narrative is immediately established, blending factual information about the world building with symbolic and interpretable sequences. The story is presented out of sync at times, which allows for better timing of certain story beats but that also makes it more challenging to follow, especially for players who aren't attentive to the scattered bits of information provided throughout. Additionally, the story incorporates references to both classical and modern media as well as multilingual segments which add depth to the symbolism but might make the story even more confusing if one isn't familiar with the themes.

All that said, my personal opinion on it? I hate open ended "OooOOoh, figure it out yourself!" stories, but I found the symbolism and pseudoscientific world-building intriguing enough to make the game linger in my mind for a while. Delving into fan theories was enjoyable and I found it to be one of the rare cases in games where information doesn't feel held back solely as a puzzle for the community to figure out what's REALLY going on, but rather it's both vague and dense enough to allow for a number of different interpretations, even when multiple endings are involved. I doubt everyone is going to enjoy these aspects, but I think it's worth experiencing and forming your own opinion about the game before having it coloured by fan interpretations and opinions.

Although the game is linear, and gameplay isn't complex enough to warrant much replayability, there's still some value in it. Taking a combat or stealth focused approach can lead to a different experience, as well as helping one notice story details that might have been overlooked on a first attempt. The multiple endings depend on your gameplay style but whether you consider an entire extra playthrough to be worth it in order to experience them yourself is debatable. Aside from that, achievements are fairly reasonable and easy to get in a single playthrough, but I wouldn't suggest focusing on them to the detriment of immersing yourself in the game.

A buggy road trip roguelite, released unfinished with a lack of content and some interesting ideas that fail to salvage the immense waste of time that the rest of the game represents. Watch some gameplay footage of it, or look for it in an abandoned box on the side of the road instead. I'm aware there were complications between the develop and publisher (which you can undoubtedly look up yourself) but it doesn't change how much of a letdown the end product is unless you're into the shallow simulation offered by its few decent gameplay quirks or want a game where you can turn off your brain and treat it as an interactive screensaver to relax with.

The story follows a road trip from East Berlin to Turkey in a decrepit Trabant Laika. After an abrupt wake-up call by your uncle Lütfi and a brief tutorial segment where you learn the basics of assembling the Laika, you're off on your drab journey. When it comes to story, that's about all you're going to get with the sparse storytelling relegated to Uncle's occasional dialogue, doubling as gameplay tips and the occasional world design itself. The ending is even more abrupt than the intro, giving you the chance to make the entire trip back home without even the occasional dialogue lines, reinforcing the unfinished feel of the game.

With the story out of the way, the gameplay of Jalopy isn't much better either. I was surprised when I realised the game was a rudimentary roguelite, with the expected features of one combined with some light car sim aspects. The car's components serve as your meta progression system, allowing you to restart your trip whenever it ends prematurely because of a lack of money, fuel or accumulated car wear. Each country introduces a different type of procedural terrain, with stops along the way such as gas stations or junkyards allowing you to balance your spending and income in order to ensure you have enough parts and fuel to make it all the way to Turkey.

Fuel and hotel costs impose a hard cash limit with additional drain on your wallet from repairs and upgrades which can be compensated by scavenging goods boxes from the roadside, or car wrecks for spare parts. On that note, while the driving is uninspiring, every other way you interact with the car is delightfully tactile - you need to look around the car to interact with its various functions, including picking up and arranging goods in your trunk or when selling items to a shop, cleaning your car at a gas station and all the parts assembly and disassembly. The fact that you rarely interact with a menu is the one aspect of the game I feel carries it the strongest, followed closely by the trunk space management which permits trading the security of carrying extra spare parts or repair kits with the versatility of leaving extra room for whatever you might find on the next leg of your trip. Some goods are banned in specific countries too which should offer a risk/reward opportunity to smuggle them in, but the game isn't smart enough to account for you just removing the contraband before the border toll and then placing it back after the inspection.

The driving itself lacks depth. Several road segments offer minor navigational challenges between off-road terrain, rain or other drivers, but for the most part you only need to keep the car straight and stop at every box you find in order to loot it. Upgrades manage to turn the car's handling from atrocious to somewhat bearable but the multiple parts and manufacturers largely just boiling down to incremental stat changes with only two or three providing extra quality of life features.

Lastly, the game is BUGGY. It's not a constant issue, but you will undoubtedly run into one or two bugs such as broken physics, terrible driver AI, or even more esoteric problems, if not outright crashes. Better hope you don't get some game breaking issue near the end of your run because it's a real possibility.

The game's low-poly art style doesn't offer any groundbreaking visuals beyond a certain degree of stylization. A point can be made about the moody atmosphere and the desaturated brown colour palette contributing to the representation of the era and tone depicted in the game but, ultimately, the most visually stimulating part of the game is your uncle's fifth-dimensional jacket pattern.

As with all roguelites, there's an inherent replayability that is dampened by the game's dull gameplay loop. You're likely going to need a good few trips before you finally complete the game, doing the same things over and over in the hopes that a few more upgrades might be enough to make it all the way. Most achievements are fairly easy but several require frankly unreasonable demands such as reaching the odometer limit (which is only feasibly doable with glitch abuse) or completing the trip twice in one session, a daunting requirement on account of the bugginess present. Just don't bother.

Also, do they just PUSH the car all the way back home every time you break down or run out of fuel? I'm almost impressed.

I love cyberpunk aesthetics, and the promise of an action-adventure game with good visuals caught my attention. While the game delivers in terms of world design, it falls flat in many other areas: The gameplay is dull, and it's difficult to say much good about the story which overall leaves a lukewarm experience in its wake. That said, this indie title punches above its weight and I can tell there's a lot of love and passion for the genre behind it. I'd recommend giving the demo a try but only consider buying it on a sale and/or with some tempered expectations for what you're getting.

Gameplay in ANNO is divided into two distinct halves. The hub areas and some parts of the dungeons are explorable in a 3D plane where you scavenge for loot from containers, engage with NPCs, do sidequests and so on. The actual combat and platforming segments are locked to a 2,5D side scrolling plane, with exploration segments occasionally interleaved to allow for variety in the gameplay and map layout. As such I'll cover these two aspects separately.

The exploration aspect is straightforward. Run around collecting junk for money with the occasional hacking minigame thrown into the mix. This is the part where you'll talk to others to progress sidequests, access shops and so on. The map is helpful in navigating these areas, particularly in a couple of confusing dungeon layouts, but other than that it's your standard fare. Equipment upgrades can also be obtained here, with shops giving access to new weapon variants, upgrades or outfits (which sadly only remain active as long as you don't get into combat). Overall a solid framework for the exploration even if there isn't that much to do in it.

On the other hand, the combat system presents several issues. Much like the story, it tries to mix up a lot of ideas, and many of them fall flat. Despite a choice of three primary melee weapon styles with unique movesets and a skill tree that gives you some extra moves for each, many of them are clunky (and pointless). I cleared the game using the balanced weapon style, using a sword I got in the starting shop by just stacking damage mods and attributes on top and ignoring most other mechanics. Ranged weapons and consumable items add some variety, but their usage is often situational.

Combat encounters, including boss fights, follow a pattern of dodging attacks and unleashing damage, lacking significant depth and, while the platforming segments are decently well done, there aren't any areas that remained especially memorable. Lastly, the skill tree progression system allows you to improve your attributes and get new movesets but most of these felt clunky and, together with some strange save point placement in dungeons as well as some other half-baked elements, make me think at least some parts of the game got reworked without that much thought put into it.

The story is unfortunately forgettable, enough so that I had to look it up again for this review, with the premise revolving around Ann Flores, a private investigator suffering from a mysterious affliction which occasionally causes her to go berserk in combat. The main narrative follows Ann's quest to find her brother who is seeking a cure for her condition. Ann is accompanied by her hacker friend Ayame via a hologram robot and together they navigate the various hub areas and dungeons while tackling sidequests and uncovering far too many cyberpunk tropes and references to other media. This aspect ultimately turns an interesting premise into a plot line lacking direction and cohesion which culminates in a convoluted megacorporation conspiracy theory and what I can only describe as overt SCP fanfiction.

Characterization is also a mixed bag. Ann comes off as emotionless and forgettable, and her opening up in later segments of the story doesn't do much to alleviate it. Ayame serves as a rather extreme contrast with an overly romantic and bubbly personality, which is downright grating at times, but at least it helps her stand out. The supporting cast, while serviceable, fail to leave a lasting impression.

Regarding side content, ANNO offers several sidequests in each hub area providing a welcome break from the core game loop but the low number makes them feel like an afterthought. What's there is decent, which made me a bit sad to see the side content bar fill up so rapidly on the hub areas. Despite this, the hub area design excels in capturing the cyberpunk aesthetic, with a lot of attention to detail and people keeping it lively, making me yearn for more depth and time spent exploring them.

The game speaks for itself when it comes to the art, blending pixel art with 3D environments and visual effects to bring the cyberpunk world to life. The hub areas meticulously detailed with character designs and outfits adding to the visual appeal. However, the dungeons sadly don't get the same treatment, featuring rather bland locales, albeit with some variety to them to prevent monotony. Despite this, the art remains one of the highlights that make the game worth playing.

The game's audio is fine, nothing too memorable but the voice acting is what caught my attention. The game is partially voice acted and impressively good quality-wise, which makes the inconsistencies in dialogue more noticeable. Subtitles often diverge from the spoken lines, or the actors read passages with strange grammar, making me wonder whether the writing or editing process for the script led to these discrepancies and occasional typos.

ANNO lacks significant replay value as the RPG elements and weapon sets offer minimal variation. Players can complete all sidequests and story content easily in one playthrough with no need for grinding for any of the achievements either.

The included DLC, however, is a commendable addition as a decently made Enter the Gungeon copy with several stages and some extra worldbuilding attached. I recommend trying it at some point!

Despite my rating, I want to consider this a neutral review because this game has potential and it's a step above in the gameplay aspect from most h-games but it trends towards mediocrity in every aspect of its implementation. If your expectations are low and you're in the mood for a simple Metroidvania with some good art then you might enjoy it for what it is, but its shortcomings become evident quickly and for me it was enough to make it lean in the negative direction, at least for the time being.

The gameplay is about what you expect from a Metroidvania. The sprites are quite large which looks pretty but limits the gameplay potential and most enemy archetypes are simple and non-remarkable. Your own options for tackling the world are a melee and charged ranged attack, alongside a series of abilities and equipment you unlock as you progress through the game, most of which are fairly bog-standard but admittedly flavourful. Of course I'm keeping my standards modest given the nature of the game but even putting all of this aside, my biggest complaint here has to be the control scheme and that's something I'll point out no matter the game.

The controls are floaty, making platforming imprecise around corners and switching directions has a long animation. This, combined with some delay when using attack inputs, can make the experience somewhat iffy but what I really had an issue with were the default keybinds. WASD for movement and mouse buttons for attacks despite there being no aiming mechanic in the game was annoying but thankfully the controls were rebindable… or so I thought. Turns out the menu controls are hardcoded, which quickly became a problem when trying to use the new keybinds which conflicted with the menuing controls. Very inconvenient and annoying. Melee attacks also inch you forward bit by bit as well which becomes a problem during drawn-out boss fights which require some level of precision in movement.

Lastly, and this is what tipped this review into negative, the core concept of the game is criminally underused beyond some platforming segments and a few gender-coded boss attacks. The h-content suffers from that as well and, with how much potential there was with that idea, it's sad to see the namesake of the game barely get used at all in both the gameplay and the story.

It uhh..exists. There's not much plot or explanation for the world which isn't a big issue although I would've liked to see some more there. Many sidequests are small self-contained excuses for you to help and consequently bang an NPC, sometimes having a follow-up for some extra scenes. On the whole the progression for these quite handhold-y with a couple of notable exceptions but it adds some extra life to the world and it's where half the H-content comes from.

I have to admit the visuals are the game's strong point. There's a lot of good animation, the world is vibrant and it serves the gameplay well with some wonderful pixel art. You can get a pretty good idea of it just looking at the screenshots to determine if it's the type of game you'd like. The pixel art font was a bit hard to read for me with some decorative flourishes that get tiresome on the eyes but thankfully there's not that much of it in the game.

The music and sound effects are serviceable, but I do have a gripe with the inconsistency in voiced NPCs and the jarring quality of some of them that made me wish they weren't voiced at all. The underwater zone was also muffled which doesn't work as well as you'd think to get the idea across.

As many other reviews pointed out, the focus is almost exclusively heterosexual in the h-content (which is ultimately a matter of taste) but I still consider it a big missed opportunity. Most of the sidequests lead to a scene that is exclusive to one gender or the other and, while the art is nice, the vast majority of these are bland and vanilla. There's no real body variety, with most characters having practically identical builds and even the scenes themselves stick to the most vanilla of depictions, with very few exceptions.

For the content you can expect, everything is uncensored off the bat. There are (generic) gender-specific defeat scenes for each area and each sidequest leads to a short animated loop with some text overlay and no variation of any kind. They're nicely animated but nothing too special and some of them feel downright unfinished, with characters being reduced to a generic blue skin tone or missing outfits that were specific to that scene and so on. If you find coins hidden in the world, you can also trade them for some simple, themed animation loops in gacha machines. There are maybe around 100ish animation loops in total which sounds like a lot but most of them are fairly short and simple.

Aside from the main quest, completion involves finishing all the sidequests and collecting all the hidden gacha coins. If you intend to 100% the game, you'll get through everything you need without much hassle. A late game item allows you to get a sound cue when you're near a secret you haven't found yet so that makes it a bit more convenient to find the last coins! Not much reason to replay it after 100% though.

Even from the intro cutscene, the hype is set up, and I'm glad to say it lives up to it. Zero Ranger is a fantastic mixture of quality pixel art, quality music and quality gameplay interwoven in a way that offers newcomers to the genre (such as myself) a good challenge while leaving room for mastery over its mechanics for those who want to take it a step further. It definitely deserves more love and attention.

A shmup's worth is primarily reflected in its gameplay, and I'm happy to say Zero Ranger delivers in spades on this front. While my experience with the genre is limited and I won't be able to make in depth comparisons, I can say it feels very approachable and most importantly it plays very smoothly. The control scheme is simple but they manage to cram quite a lot of features into it. Starting off with only your basic weapon, you get a choice of additions after each of the stages, allowing you to freely customise your capabilities depending on what you find more comfortable. The levels and enemies are smartly laid out so that none of the weapon types ever feel useless, there's always going to be some pattern that benefits a specific loadout better than another. On that note, each level has a lot of unique set pieces and mechanics that make it stand out and the game pushes what is expected of the limits of such games more and more throughout. It's been exciting to see every new change and addition on the way to completion and some sequences definitely caught me off guard.

Aside from the weapons, you also have a choice of two different ship variants, each one offering a different take on each of the weapon types. Even with the exact same loadout on the two ships the gameplay can be quite different thanks to those variations and that alone is a good reason to replay the game. The ships even come with cute different cosmetics in all relevant locations which is some very nice attention to detail. When you finally succumb to your skill issues, your score gets converted into unlocking a permanent series of continues, as well as allowing you to start from the latest cleared stage, making future runs easier for newer players or giving you the chance to practise a part that's giving you trouble. A very welcome addition, especially for some of the later sequences. On that note, the game "only" has four stages, and you can finish it in about an hour or two once you know what you're doing, but getting there is going to take a lot longer than that, with some surprises along the way, so there's plenty of content to go around thanks to its quirky narrative and structure.

The story is lightly interspaced between the levels, neatly separated from the gameplay but reinforcing it without becoming overbearing. I won't spoil the plot much but it's there if you're interested, and it's a nice surprise to have it included in a game that could've easily just been strictly gameplay focused and still successful. There are even short cutscenes and transitions thrown in with some wonderful pixel art to go with them as well as the occasional reference to other classic shmups or other media that fans are sure to appreciate.. The only other thing I'd like to mention is that when the game gives you a choice near the end of the game, it is a very genuine warning so treat it as such.

For a game with a pixel art aesthetic and only two main colours for its scheme it definitely manages to squeeze out as much value out of them as possible. Level backgrounds, enemies and shots are always clear and there's quite a lot of variety in designs and environments in spite of the technical limitations. The animations are likewise a treat to behold whenever they show up.

On the audio side of things, both the gameplay and music are fantastic, with the tracks specifically catching my attention with how well they integrate into the levels. Certain key moments are truly elevated by the music syncing up with them and frankly, the level tracks are quite good to listen to on their own. Very nice!

The game has a single achievement for finishing the content, and it doesn't demand absolute mastery over the game, which is fantastic since it offers quite a bit of replayability. The aforementioned freedom in builds combined with the ship types and two game modes give you plenty of content to go back to, with some optional bonuses or secrets to seek out for those who want to really master what the game has to offer.

Boiling it down, RUINER is essentially a couple of hours of dashing through hallways, fighting enemies or a boss while locked inside a room, with several configurations of the above. It's got a striking art style and a fairly solid gameplay loop but story is kinda middling and it's definitely no cyberpunk Hotline Miami. Ultimately a competent game with some problems that I'd nevertheless recommend giving a try if you're in the mood for some fast paced action without too many frills.

Gameplay is clearly RUINER's strong point. At its core, is a fast-paced twin-stick shooter with some Hotline Miami influence and a skill tree. You start a generic melee and a ranged weapon that are serviceable, but weak. Enemies drop their weapons on death which are "powerups" in the form of different guns with a limited amount of ammo to use before they get tossed away. These weapons are fun, offer a lot of variety and can benefit specific playstyles and skill combinations more than others, although I did feel like a few were not quite as well balanced as others. The ability to chain dash around completes your basic moveset, offering you extra mobility and some protection from damage.

On top of this is a set of skills that expands throughout the game as you level up, allowing you to enhance passive aspects or, more interestingly, gives you a series of active abilities you can spend your energy reserves on. Those range from shields, the ability to charm enemies, call in a supply drop with your desired weapon, dash a million times, blow up grenades around you and so on. This is a big plus for me, since you can freely respec your skills at any time, and some encounters or bosses can be handled easier with certain skills than others.

When it comes to game structure itself, you run through a series of highly linear hallways, with the occasional side branch for some XP or weapons, otherwise stopping at each large room along the way to kill every enemy or boss inside before moving on. There are three major story zones with several stages each, and after each one you go back to the hub area to talk to a few NPCs or progress one of the three two sidequests that are entirely inconsequential.

This sets the stage for a lot of interesting interactions and combat scenarios, so do all these systems fit together?... Mostly, as long as you don't scrutinise them too closely. I played the game on hard mode which is rather unforgiving with M+KB controls. Death is not punishing unless you're chasing specific achievements, with a single button press allowing you to get right back into the last encounter you were doing. This combined with the adjustable skill system makes it easy to get right back to progression but the issues mostly crop up with the controls and gameplay variety.

Movement follows the isometric direction which can be very confusing to get used to at first. It's convenient when navigating the wealth of corridors, but not during combat segments. Dashing felt very unsafe, especially in melee range where enemy tracking is fast and a point-blank volley can chunk your entire health in an instant because you were just too far to stagger someone or they pulled a 360 noscope on your ass if you dashed behind them. Most enemies behave in a samey way despite having several variants introduced throughout the game and even most bosses felt just a little bit generic, boiling down to "melee" or "ranged" with a unique quirk or two. Several rooms and sequences attempt something more novel with the gameplay that encourages a different skill use or mentality, but you're mostly going to find a set of skills you like and stick to them for the majority of the game.

On the whole the gameplay is solid enough and the game is short enough that it doesn't outstay its welcome in spite of these issues, but I'd love to see a sequel with more variety and tighter gameplay that doesn't make me feel more in control over success and failure.

There's little to say here. The story is generic and you'll likely see where it's going long before the ending. Aside from a typo or two I noticed, there's really not that much to say about it. It also ends weirdly abruptly in a way that I'm not sure denotes unfinished content or a sequel bait.

That said, I do want to commend them for the world building. The hub area is lively and the environmental worldbuilding is pretty decent too. It definitely nails the cyberpunk feel that leans more towards the dirty and worn down rather than the shiny and glamorous and I could see benefit in elaborating on it in a future game perhaps. Character designs are a standout feature, as you might tell by the MC and it's a shame they rarely amount to more than the briefest of interactions throughout the story.

The trailers and screenshots for the game make it look pretty damn awesome and for once I'm happy to say the ingame experience is pretty close to that expectation. There's a heavy reliance to harsh red lighting tones and high contrasts throughout the game, giving it a sense of identity and the action sequences themselves are satisfying and impressive when everything lines up well. Things can get a little hard to read in some areas and the environmental design is quite repetitive in spite of the lighting trying to vary it up but the game isn't long enough for it to be a huge issue in my opinion. I'll give it an extra brownie point for the character art as well, which is very high quality even though most characters and enemies are only seen a couple of times.

The soundtrack adds a lot to the action and stands up on its own, and the game's audio mixing does a good job of conveying that little bit of extra information such as a weapon magazine about to empty out. Nothing to complain about here!

Aside from the base game, there's an extra arena mode that challenges you with ten challenging waves of enemies, with the ability to grab skills between each wave. It's available from the start of the game but the challenge involved is definitely much higher than anything you'll face early on with it. The other game mode is a speedrun mode which cuts out all of the story segments and downtime, letting you focus exclusively on the running and gunning, with some caveats.

Level select allows you to go back to any level if you're achievement hunting but half of the achievements do not respect your time at all and require you to go out of your way to play in a boring manner to get enough kills for some frankly arbitrary tasks. The speedrun is especially annoying because it doesn't take the best times of each stage but expects you to do the whole thing in one sitting. The gameplay is thankfully fun enough to warrant replaying through it for several of them and level select makes that less painful but on the whole it felt like the requirements for completion made it outstay its welcome.

Can you spend 3 EUR on a better game than this? Absolutely. A better H-game? Probably. So should you get this? Very big maybe. It's a short isekai VN with some lewd catgirl scenes. Nothing about it is exceptional but it got a bit of emotion out of my cold dead heart so consider it a very tentative positive review. Plus it'll get recommended to my friends if I do so enjoy that.

It's a VN. There basically isn't any. From time to time you get to pick a specific outfit for the dialogue scenes, or a choice of reaction to the events. Those don't change any of the story beats but how nice you are to Kiara will affect the final scene. You can fast forward and backtrack through seen dialogue so it'll only take a few minutes to see alternative paths or endings. Pretty handy!

You've got a cliche, isekai story that quickly devolves into steamy catgirl servant sex. It definitely goes hard into the nukige category there but if you enjoy that sort of thing I'm sure you'll end up liking it. Your occasional dialogue choices will determine whether you get the last H-scene or not and frankly the bad ending wasn't worth the pain of upsetting the poor catgirl. The only other thing I'd like to mention here is that there are some glimpses of world building that actually made me kind of interested in it, and it's a shame none of that gets explored further. It could be a nice opportunity for a future, more elaborate game perhaps.

Also I saw a few typos and some modern word choices *coughTHICCcough* but given the lighthearted nature of the game I'm not gonna be too anal about them. Heh…anal.

I'm not a super picky person when it comes to art and although I don't think it's anything to write home about, nothing about it was egregiously bad either. The Steam screenshots will give you a good idea of whether you'd like it or not. There's about a dozen outfits with small differences to ogle at and the scenes themselves are fine I guess.

There's..partial voice acting, which is firmly in the cringe category but I found the over the top acting endearing in a weird way. The VO for the H-scenes is a little better and does add a bit to it. Music is sort of there, zZz.

You probably got a decent enough idea of the content given what I said but I will give it a plus for being uncensored off the bat. No screwing around with patches or anything. There are four regular H-scenes and a fifth ending one, with most (arguably all) of them being in the vanilla territory.

The outfits and lack thereof are decent with at least SOME attempt to integrate them into the story…as much as you can call it that and the H-dialogue is rather typical and over the top, with a good helping of nyas thrown in. I'm sure that's a plus for some of you.

This is absolutely meant to be a neutral review, but deciding on whether to recommend it or not is a dicey proposition. If you enjoy a chill and fairly short completionist experience then this might be for you, but for all the teasers of something lurking in the depths, DREDGE proves to be a surprisingly shallow experience full of potential that is left half-baked. It's not a bad game by any means and I'd more than recommend it on a sale, but the game tends to fall flat in both the fishing gameplay as well as its storytelling.

I'll preface this by saying that nothing the game does is outright bad but rather it's full of "but"-s, so let's get the factual aspect out of the way first. You control your little fishing boat from a third person perspective, looking for fishing spots that can be interacted with through a short timing-based minigame. Your inventory is a grid that contains both equipment as well as your catch, with some fish coming in wacky shapes that can be tricky to store efficiently. There's a day-night cycle, with a light sanity mechanic causing hallucinations and hazards if you stay out at night for too long. For the most part, this translates into cash which you use for upgrades and repairs, but the occasional quest can give you some unique upgrades, abilities or special pieces of equipment which feeds into the fish -> sell -> upgrade loop that is rather satisfying to progress through… at least for the first few hours of the game. When it comes to progression, the main mechanic extends your storage capacity and number of slots that can hold equipment which, in turn, provides bonuses to night lighting, speed, the ability to catch different types of fish or employ more passive fishing methods such as nets or crab pots. Sadly the system has the same lack of depth as everything else, ultimately.

The map is divided into a central "starter" zone, with four other biomes and story segments surrounding it. This is evident from the get-go and gives the map a weirdly segmented feel since each different area is only separated by a small stretch of ocean and the map is fully revealed so there's not much room for surprises there outside of maybe one sidequest which requires you to fish in a particular location. To add to this, the gameplay loop in all of these areas is identical to the tutorial zone. Fish might require a different rod, net or trap to interact with, but the minigames are largely identical whether it's a typical shallows fish, a deep sea shark or you're dredging for upgrade materials, which ultimately feels like the limiting factor in progression. Furthermore still, three of the four areas you'll visit only have one NPC (who usually helps you deal with the rather underwhelming hazard in the area) and the generic travelling merchant/shop/dock so they end up feeling quite barren and similar. Ironically, the first zone after the tutorial offers a bit more story and a threat that remains relevant in the area and requires a different gameplay approach so it feels strange to move from that to an area where the threat is almost entirely passive and immobile.

You might also notice I didn't mention the sanity mechanics in detail anywhere. These hazards quickly lose their charm and boil down to a handful of mild inconveniences that can largely be ignored if you really want to fish at night. While there are fish that can only be caught in the nighttime, there's no other time pressure or mechanic that encourages you to take risks so even these mild inconveniences can be almost entirely avoided. Not only that, but most of these sanity threat cards are played out from the beginning of the game so as soon as you spend a couple of nights out fishing you've likely seen them all already and their impact as both a gameplay and storytelling mechanic becomes meaningless.

Lastly a note on controls. I ended up using a mixture of controller and mouse to play because the inventory management is infinitely more comfortable with a mouse, and rather tedious with the controller, even if it's fine functionally. On the flip-side, controlling the boat definitely seems more suited to a controller although it seems to work fine enough on keyboard controls. They both worked together seamlessly so it's just a side note I felt like mentioning.

After that lengthy gameplay segment I'd love to say something nice about the story to compensate, but this was probably the biggest letdown for me, especially the more I went through the game. The premise is a Lovecraftian setting where things aren't quite what they seem and everyone is just a little bit crazy but they just don't do enough to push it beyond the most shallow of interpretations. The aberrant fish have fantastic flavour, descriptions and art but are ultimately just slightly more valuable fish you catch sometimes. There's a short plotline at the start about debt over the boat you were supplied with but it goes away in a matter of a day or two. The NPCs offer side quests that make you think they'll go somewhere interesting then fall flat or lack any follow-up. Deliver a suspiciously eldritch package to someone? They just go away and the quest ends. Help an NPC build a house on an isolated island away from the other towns? It's just another docking spot and there's nothing else to do with them. Most of these quests boil down to fetch or delivery and later on you barely even get those singular interactions anymore because of the lack of NPCs outside of the main quest line (which isn't particularly deep and I'm sure many people will figure out long before the ending).

I'm really torn here. The writing is good when it shows up, there's a lot of great set-up for the world… and just not enough payoff. In the end, you could rip out all the Lovecraftian elements from the game and it would play almost exactly the same and that's the most damning point.

This is one of those games where the screenshots and videos give it justice. The low-poly aesthetic isn't anything novel, but it works just fine to convey what it needs about the game and world. It's a competent style which also extends to the artwork of the characters and the design of the interfaces, both of which are highlights in my opinion. The fish designs are delightfully creepy, especially in the case of the mutated fish you'll encounter. There are a few visual surprises as well as a nice distinction between the different biomes with the atmospheric lighting doing wonders to sell the setting in the first couple of hours of gameplay.

In terms of sound design and music, there's not much I can say left an impact on me, but it's all solid where it needs to be, assisting the atmosphere with the occasional hint and whisper that reminds you that things aren't quite normal here. Good stuff!

There's nothing you can really miss in DREDGE, and while the loop of fishing, selling and so on is enjoyable, it ultimately outstays its welcome in the process of finding every single fish and exploring every nook and cranny for sidequests. The game's few surprises aren't going to have any impact on a second playthrough so unless you absolutely love the gameplay loop I'd say the longevity of the game is very limited at this time.

A nice and sweet ten minute long taste of this soon-to-be series at the very generous price of free. There's cute art, cute music and the cats meow when you click them! I didn't feel like any of the cats were pixel-hunty or dubiously shaped to obscure them which made the whole experience rather fair and fun to go through.

There's really not much more to say, so I will express a small meta concern at this sort of game becoming a bit of library spam if every different entry is going to be a single ten minute or so puzzle as its own separate game but that's just a minor gripe.