Recent reviews by Strike

I could write a novel about how much of a, well, audiovisual novel masterpiece this game is with a few quirks in control and story lead, but I'll leave it at this:

Absolute cinema.

Well, that was a ride.

The controls are a bit clunky, it's all a bit much if you're just starting out (even with all assists turned on), but I gotta say: The fact this game combines the original THPS feeling with the vibe that games like DOOM bring is almost magical. It's the kind of combination that makes you say "what? that sounds random" when someone tells you about it, but then when you play, it fits so well.

And on top, the game's entire presentation is immensely accurate — over the top pentagram usage, everything is sludge red, slight VHS video effects, a sort of bullet time, explosions, "metal-as-f**k" enemies, career as well as single play modes to hit every nerve ... Motördoom is an awesome idea with almost perfect execution.

May I suggest an "old man" / "easy" mode that has no wheelie/grind balance and autolocks to enemies?

Awesome, well-balanced mix between simple shooter with epic audio and visual effects and some grind/inventory/mission strategizing. Really fun to play especially with friends ... until you try an Automaton mission at night.

F**k the Automatons. F**k them to hell.

The creators didn't anticipate the sheer interest people have in the game so the servers are currently constantly overloaded, which often makes the client just blackscreen etc. right after you start it. Please fix.

Also, the anti-cheat (for a PvE game?) is kernel level, which leaves a bitter aftertaste. But one of the most fun new games I've played in a while and it looks great, especially on cutting edge hardware.

A thoroughly touching game with great artwork and a killer OST. While the results of the choices taken often seem a bit haphazard, it's gripping and the overall story carries a lot of depth and a twang of real life social criticism. Some characters are written better than others (some are downright annoying), and some of the second half of the game feels rushed and a bit unrealistic, but I'd recommend this game to anyone who enjoys deep story games with the good ol' "Everyone will remember this".

Dorfromantik is one of those rare gems of a game that seems to do everything right: Offer an extremely simple basic game idea that allows for gradually intensifying difficulty, give it an easily understandable visual style and gameplay mechanic, add challenges that make sense and seem to grow naturally with your ability, and add flavor by playing with the style, look and feel of the game.

This is one of the best games on Steam, period.

I found it really hard to decide whether I recommend this or not.


First of all, this game seems to have been built with much love, at least to some point. The artstyle is absolutely gorgeous and very well made and implemented. Starting the game is a lot of fun and all the little fun quirky things that happen (including challenges) keep up the tension. Some of the milestones make sense within the story and add fun.

Yet at some point, the game becomes immensely unfair in my opinion and my motivation to keep going after a few restarts really dropped fast.

• Figuring out the ideal balance between Tech, Usability and Aesthetics often seems like nothing but a gamble, even with well-trained and motivated employees. This means that sometimes, you'll remake a single feature 5 times until you get a sufficient Tech score. And yes, I look at recommended stats, the descriptions, my team's abilities and did the output comparison before setting sliders every time.
  
• Features seem to degrade out of nowhere without any explanation.
  
• Employees seem to underperform massively when under like 70 Motivation. They need constant vacation. I wish I had two weeks off every 2 months ...
  
• Speed is way, way too slow. I found myself constantly playing the game on highest speed and still thinking some thing just take too long.
  
• Having remakes of features take just as long as the intial build is not only unrealistic but also unfair.
  
• Research takes way too long.
  
• Some nerfs are just crazy. If you catch a ghost, that employee is basically completely useless for a long time. And then the first chance to start to get rid of the ghost is to train 10 times just to get the ghost away for weekends? Come on.
  
• You work hard to gain market leadership, then a new challenger hits the field and just straight up gets 66% of the share? This often means you drop from a good +7 to +10K earned a month into the negative within one day. How does that make sense?
  
• Why can't the player repay the loan in instalments? At least like that you could slowly work towards getting out of debt.
  
• I've spent a lot of money on furniture yet haven't seen much improvement at all. The fact that new furniture also comes with a monthly fee is honestly quite senseless. If I pay 25K for computers, I expect them to increase my stats for a while without paying even more for it.
  
• Firing people costs money?
  
• Why do some actions allow the player to go into negative numbers, yet others don't (new features, research etc)?
  
  Anyway, for the time I played it (I left it open while my PC ran overnight a few days) I had a good time, but then quickly lost interest. The game's worth a try, but not at its current price (CHF 15, which is roughly USD 18). Game Dev Tycoon is more polished and fair.
  
  Thanks for the free key!

Game is awesome, refined, fun, graphics aren't distracting, challenges are rough.

Tutorial voice guy "Strike" sucks though.

- Signed, "Strike", the tutorial voice guy

I've played this game on a livestream of mine with a bud and I think I haven't laughed this hard in a while.

Gang Beasts has come a long way from the early alpha I tried a while ago. It's fun, engaging and the wobbly controls are cool - just hard enough to control to be fun but not frustrating. I'd like to see the devs add more destructibles; apart from that, I CANNOT wait until the online multiplayer is out (for which I seem not to be granted a beta key :( ) and play it live some more!

This is an addicting title.
When I started playing, it kept reminding me of RUST, somehow. But make no mistake, this game is much harder. I started it like five or six times, every time being suddenly killed by a wolf - once, I even ran over a frozen lake with only a few % of life left, only to die from freezing the moment a warming, safe hut creeped out of the snow storm and into my view. Needless to say, I was frustrated - but I started the sandbox again anyway.
The entire survival system is very well thought out. Calories (though correctly, they should be Kilocalories, but I don't want to be the nitpicker here) show a known, realistic measure of how much energy one has remaining, and the four values Fatigue, Cold, Hunger and Thirst give a simplified but sufficient overview of the character's status. Items are mostly spawned at random, though some keep staying the same (such as specific animal carcasses).
The artwork and sound is beautiful. Treading my way through a snowy valley, I heard my footsteps, the sound of wind in my ears and a wolf howling from afar, which all made for an eerie, but hauntingly beautiful atmosphere.

Would buy again.

This might just win my personal "Surprise Gem Award 2014".
It's been a while since I bought and fired up a small game to completely lose track of time and play until 4 am. Game Dev Tycoon is absolutely gripping. It features a perfect level of macro- and micro-management; the game creation mode is easy enough to oversee but complex enough to make you think about your choices of content, target audience, platform decision and human resources assignment. Sometimes, the game reviews (which basically make out how well the game will sell) seem a little random, but never so much as to make you feel swindled.
Many management decisions make you rethink your philosophy for your game company, and when you think it can't get bigger, you unlock MMO games and console creation and it gets to a whole new level of risk, management effort and financial fine-tuning.
If I could, I would buy this game again. Greenheart Games have gained my respect with a lovingly crafted, nice "little" game, thoughtful feature balancing and a beautiful eye for detail. They also handled the pirating situation well, opting for the softer, self-reflection-inducing way instead of trying to go legal. The only thing I'd see to be negative would be that some mini decisions such as whether an old engine should be sold away or given to the fans for free tinkering are way too easy to see through, and choosing the same way over and over again always gives you the same result. I'd like to see some more negative outcomes in that kinda stuff.
Other than that: I love this game, it's small albeit awesome and elaborate and I hope to see more of the same quality from Greenheart Games. Weiter so, Jungs (und Mädels?) !