Recent reviews by Alc

Touching, beautiful and soooo original. Controlling a game with your eyes makes this an incredibly unique experience.
While the game is short, It's definitely worth the price.
A blind playthrough is strongly recommended!

Hades is by far the best roguelike I've ever played.
The only roguelike I've really enjoyed before was The Biding of Isaac but Hades managed to stay unique by mixing element from other genre. (Visual Novel, Dating Sims, etc...)
The gameplay loop works well with the story and dying was strangely rewarding.
There is so much content for 25$ it's incredible. 100% took me around 100 hours.
Highly recommended to anyone

Unique non-linear story that is told with the help of short little video snippets.
Trying to piece together all the informations and falling in multiples rabbit holes made this story quite entertaining even if I guessed the plot twist quite early.
The ending felt a bit incomplete and could have been fleshed out a bit more.
The acting was great !
It's very rare a game successfully makes you feel like you are a detective so I definitely recommend this game while on discount.

This is more of a mixed review than a negative review.
The demo sold me on the core gameplay really fast.
If you enjoyed the demo, I recommend picking it up with a massive discount.

I'll start off with the good parts of Ghostrunner :

- The combat is really enjoyable.
At first, you may feel like this is too hard but after a couple of rooms, you learn to play against each enemy type. It gets a lot more fun when you try to predict and dodge all the attacks. The fight arenas were great because there was always multiple ways to traverse them in creative ways.

- The artstyle is on point
The game looks great. I really enjoyed running around theses beautiful environnement.

- The story
I never expected this indie game to have an entire world and lore around it. It wasn't phenomenal but I was happy it was there.

- Tom Fight / Mara fight
A great challenge, it was really enjoyable to try to figure out how to beat them.


The bad parts of Ghostrunner :

- The parkour / Plateforming
The maps were linear and way too easy.
The "cool factor" of the mouvement got old real quick while traversing the world. I never felt like there was a challenge and it was always pretty obvious where to go and what to do. (The only exceptions are some collectible).
When you try to go too fast, that's where it may get clunky in some specific situation. The mouvement just didn't feel as polished as Mirror's Edge.

- Lenght
I finished this game in 5 hours. I don't mind short experiences but I don't think it was worth the 32$ CAD/24$ USD discounted price.
There's also very little replay value except if you want to finish each lever faster.

- Hel fight
It started up really cool but the actual fight was ... awkward.

- Mechanics
Some mechanics seemed cool but they were quickly forgotten. The slow-motion powerup was barely used. Hacking was used in around 3 levels and then never again. The sniper enemy was only used for one level. This is a strange choice because some of them could have made a few fight arena a lot more interesting.

- Kamikaze Mob
While I understand that the point of this enemy is to force you to keep moving, their placement made them more annoying than challenging. Dying from an explosion that was right around the corner before even seeing the enemy felt cheap. Mixed with some timing-specific enemies ( like the Ninja ) they were an absolute nightmare.


Overall, it's a pretty decent indie game that could be improved if there's a sequel.
Its not for everyone but it scratched my Mirror's edge / Hotline miami itch for a couple of hours.
If you think you may enjoy it, you should probably pick it up while on sale.

One of the most unique game I've ever played. It's like a pirate sudoku.
I never felt this much like a detective.
The gameplay is well polished and discourage brute-forcing the answers.
Taking an educated guess and it being validated felt so rewarding.
While the artstyle is distincitve, it gets in the way in specific situation which is the only downside I could find.
A blind playthrough is strongly recommend.

I don't enjoy most Tabletop RPG or Text-Based RPG.
Disco Elysium should not be my type of game, but it just works so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ well.

- The skill point system and the thought cabinet system are magnificent exemple of good game design.
- The story is engaging and your choices during the game define how your character develops. Because of that, there's always multiples ways to solves puzzles.
- The artstyle, portrait art and music are all amazing.
- It's a quite text heavy game, so it can be hard for some people, but it's always really interesting and helps you immerse yourself in the game's universe. The Final Cut fixes this by adding amazing voice over for all characters and inner monologue.


There are some downsides to Disco Elysium :

- I felt obligated to try every text promp to make sure that I wouldn't miss a specific event that would progress the story. The roleplay element didn't work when I needed to be the good, the bad and the crazy cop with a character to get the right answers.
- While having Stats on clothes seems like a great idea, I felt obligated to switch up my attire before rolls which slowed up the gameplay.

Overall, this is a Must-Play for all RPG fan and is definitely worth trying it out even if you think it's not your type of game.
Solid 9/10

Solid platformer.
It's pretty hard but fair.
Like everything in life, if you keep trying you'll climb that mountain.
Getting a new DLC in 2019 is also pretty dope.

A fun and dorky hospital sims that is not overly complicated
The spiritual successor to Theme Hospital & it's Hours of fun.
The late game can get repetitive but it's always quite funny.

The concept has a lot of potential.
This game could one day be good enough for a positive review if the devs keep working hard, but the gamefeel is terrible at the moment, even for an Early Access Game.

Everything feels way too floaty
The Knockback from getting shot as a zombie is way too strong. Removing controls from the player is not fun.
The weapon Knockback for humans is also way too strong and has no counterplay.
The bombers AOE is a bit too big.
The respawn mechanic is clucky.

However, there are some positives.
The art style is great.
The concept is innovative.
The game looks good.
There isn't a lot variety for the guns but they all feel different to play with.

For now, I can't recommend this game.

The Garden Between is a puzzle game with incredible visuals, imaginative puzzles and with a fitting soundtrack.
The story is simple, yet sweet and explained in small cutscenes or just by looking around the islands.

There are some downsides :
The game is short and the price a bit too high.
There's no replay value.
An easier way to speed up characters could be useful.


Overall, It's a nice experience that you should definitely try when the game is on sale.