Recent reviews by st0l3n.id

Heavy RNG focus is sometimes really tough, it gets better over time, but can still be frustrating, especially if you want to get certain things happening that you KNOW how to do, but they just wont spawn or spawn at the wrong time, where you cant afford them.
This is the major reason it took me 20 hours to get to the credits (which is not the end). I wouldnt be suprised if people beat this around 10 hours with better RNG.

That being said, it is most likley the best Puzzle game I have played so far. Going into detail would be spoilers, so i wont. What i can say is that is the kind of game that peels layer by layer like an onion, make screenshots of everything, look at everything, read everything. Almost all things are relevent in some aspect later.

Its wild. Its puzzling. Its actually really freaking good. And im not even done yet.


Edit 1: Help. I keep discovering things, i dream about this game now. I cannot stop.

Lets see what gets added in Early Access, so far the game serves as a solid base.

Very enjoyable, didnt play optimally, Speedruns possible, good feedback loop and progression, a tad short, but the powercreep is real.
For the price its basicly theft, so dont admit buying it, to the police.

Kenny, your Demo has a significant flaw. Its not a full game yet, and i have to stop playing :(
Please fix.

If you're looking for a detective game to play in one evening, this is as good as it gets. A fantastic case, lovable character design. I would like to go out there as McQuacklin and solve the next case instantly.

A proper remake of an classic.
It comes with a toggle that allows you to switch between old sound and graphics and the remake on the fly. Also adds Hotspot-highlighting and controller support.

Thats how Point and clicks should be remade.

This was my first time playing this, and it was quite enjoyable. No the most difficult puzzles but a nice ride, pun intended.

If you like the genre or the games of LucasArts back the day then this is one you should pick up for a fun few hours.

Mini Metro is cleanly designed, engaging to play and excells and doing exactly what it set out to do.

Could barely be better.

This game is great in many ways, and dreadful in some.
The story, the design, the voice acting are all great. Understand this as a make your choice novel with some QTE and some puzzles. If thats your thing, go for it, its honestly good as that.

The gameplay is somewhat 3/4 baked. Considering this game is a detective game (and has hidden collectibles to find), the walk speed is dreadful. I think they went for "cool slow walk" because of theme, but theme needs to compromise a bit for gameplay right?
I experienced some smaller bugs, but nothing major, seems my experience there differs from other reviewers.

Overall i recommend the game. Its not amazing, but its pretty solid for what it is.

XCOM 2 is a sequel, and it did the unspeakable: It Improved almost every aspect of the previous game.

I'm a iron man mode player, one save, only auto save and thats it. And i'm well ware that like 99% of ppl that played this game are the exact opposite. However i had a blast failing campaing-run after campaing-run, figuring out what went wrong where and which research might be the best in which part of the game.

Also the setting of the game is borderline-genious. As most players save-scummed/failed their runs on the first game, the developers adoptet the losing scenario as canon for xcom 2. A great choice instead of coming up for an abitrary reason for a new plotline.

I loved XCOMs reboot from this developer, and XCOM 2 does everything it predecessor did, but slightly better.
The only caviat is probably the the timed turn missions, they directly counteract the sneaking element that got introduced in this sequel. While i understand why they did it, it forces you to act rash and "on good faith" sometimes.

Mod support is also amazing, there is plenty of mods for you to enjoy and replay the game over and over again with different experiences to boot. Just as an example: there is a Jedi-Class mod.

Overall i had much fun with this, more then with the "first one" (which i liked a lot), and thats me playing on iron man mode, dying over and over and over again.

Recommended.
'nuff said.

Having played the previous games, Reus and Renowned Explorers, i can see how the developer not only improved on each individual idea, but also married both of them.

Comparision
Reus was a nice godgame, you had to influence your inhabitants but you didnt have control. That got beyond a point of being frustrating, even if you setup for your flock to go the right direction they could decide on chance to not develop how you wanted them.

In Renowend explorers you had tight turn-based combat with little randomness, but with random progression and events on the map. The combat was great for having different approaches: Devious, Peace and Combat.

Description
This game tried to combine both. You dont have direct control over your followers, but instead guide them to a path you want them to take in "battle".
They can win "battles" in various ways, but mostly it comes down to taking out your opponents or converting the needed amount of people in a "discussion/battle" before the "enemy" does.

However you have almost absolute control over your followers stats, but have to counter-balance their egos. While the combat itself is basicly a result of that prepartion, you cant do anything and its a auto-battler. While this might sound off-putting for some, the game makes it intersting because you can bet on the outcome, giving your followers less health and your opponents a headstart, but reaping twice (or more) the reward.
There is also a really interesting heritage mechanic where you build up your city, constantly buffing your future followers to surpass the previos genrartions. In addition, if you're not careful, your followers will not belive in you if they themself get to mighty, after all its them that did all the work, not you, the invisible overlord, right?

It seems a lot of care has been but into how believers talk, reaction and follow up on the various ways you can develop your religion. If you get into the game it reveals a lot of depth.

The negative
All of that praise aside, the game seems rather easy compared to its predecessors, my first campaign on normal failed, because the game did not (i think) explain how happiness works. The second campaing i played on hard, and got through in a breeze. Okay, thats an overstatement, it was challenging, yet fair, i had plenty of nailbiting moments, and some failures.
About Happiness: While i was aware of the stat i just didnt hover over the most important UI-Element that showed how close to campain-death i was. Maybe thats just me, but i feel like this really should have been explained.

I only played as peaceful so far, but considering the main menu collection i can tell that there is many more ways to play this game, and there is sitll a new difficulty setting to conquer.
Peace is really easy to play but judging from my first complete campaign i would assume that there is a lot of challenge with religions that dont laser-focus on two stats.
I'm looking forward to play more of this game.

Why should you play this?
If you like rouge likes, (godgames,) managment games, push your luck elements or both of the previous games of abbot games. This is a clear recommendation.
The more you get into building your head-canon-religion the more fun it gets thematicly, the end-game screen even takes reference to your decisions along the way.
If you would rather like a mechanical challenge without all the fluff, or direct combat control, this might not be your game.


Personally, i had much fun, and i recommend this game.
'nuff said