Recent reviews by [RAIN]deer

Ya it's free so just download it. Good for the two-hourish it takes to beat, even if snek is super frustrating and the minigame achievement is a bit painful to get.

Also this made me consider The Witness and try get all the environmental puzzles+extra challenge near the end of the game.

Stanley...? Good heavens, Stanley, how did you wind up in the Steam Reviews? This wasn't even an option, there was only a Left Door and a Right Door. Was it the fern, Stanley? Probably teleported you somehow, that's the problem with games these days: They say they're "finished" and ship out without doing QA with a fine-toothed comb! Almost a decade has past and big publisher quality has somehow gone down, can you believe it?

Oh well, I'm sure it's rare and won't happen again. Now hurry up and find another fern around here, Stanley, we need to return to the story. Not only do you still have "presh mems" to revisit, but a whole new world of choices awaits you.

...Stanley?

Stanley, are you there? Are there even ferns in the Steam Reviews section, Stanley?

tl;dr: Have you played any of the other Room games? Then you've played this, but with different puzzles. So if you want more of the same, get The Room 4. (I could almost copy-paste from my reviews for the other three...)

For the rest of you, if you like puzzle rooms of any sort then this is worth a spin. (No need to play the other games first, either.) Some good brain teasers, lots of interconnected puzzles, and a "light" story that includes a hint of lore which adds to--but doesn't distract from--the gameplay. Environments are beautiful thanks to the dev's overhaul for the PC release, but once again control/interaction didn't get the same attention, making movement and some interaction very frustrating. While I don't find the asking price of $9 to be high, you won't miss out by waiting until it's on sale for $5 or lower.

Just like the other three The Room entries, The Room 4: Old Sins is a conversion from an iPad game to bring it to the PC. Just like the other three The Room entries, the graphics and design were overhauled and look gorgeous: Every area is chock-full of detail and looks absolutely beautiful. Old Sins fits the "The Room" moniker the most out of any games, taking place in the attic of a home that contains a dollhouse. Pieces of the dollhouse are puzzles, but rooms in the dollhouse may be entered from the outside; what's more, you can enter the models/displays within these dollhouse rooms (cue Inception music.)

And just like the other three The Room entries, nothing else got the same TLC. Controls once again mimic simple touchpad taps or swipes: You click-and-drag to look around or use items, double-click focus on items or enter areas, and right-click to zoom out. Oh, and Esc will bring up the menu. But that's it: you can't use WASD to look around or use keys to have a more "binary" interaction (which would be a huge help with object rotation, as rotating something without looking directly at it can often have inconsistent results.) Inventory items can also be interacted with, and suffer the same issues but with added annoyance of needing to rotate them in a 3D space; this means you can accidentally rotate the object when trying to just rotate or move one piece.

In other words, The Room 4: Old Sins is a sequel with no major changes--for both better and worse. The same mechanics are in play: Move around environment pieces or click buttons to change setups, do the same for some items in your inventory, and look through a criminally-underused colorful lens to reveal hidden interactions and tips. There is one major improvement over The Room 3: All dollhouse rooms are accessed from the "real" attic, so switching rooms is only two hops instead of having to Myst-click your way through rooms and hallways. It also does away with one of TR3's major changes: multiple endings. However, while they were interesting the alternate endings in TR3 just required one or two extra steps on the very last room and were mostly padding; they were nice, but not really missed.

All the mechanic pain points remain: Knowing what, exactly, can and can't be interacted with can sometimes be random guessing. While the lens can reveal random painting to indicate the larger areas of a room to focus in on, there is no indicator for more fine-tuned interaction. A lot of annoyance could be done away with by having interactable objects glow faintly or just using the decades-old point-and-click mechanic of the cursor changing when over an interactable object. Thankfully, these are rarely more than annoyances and cause minor slow-down when playing. Unlike the prior entries, I didn't feel any puzzles were obtuse: any issues I had were due to not fully investigating objects.

The Room 4: Old Sins is also not long, with a competent player able to complete it in a long afternoon. Even for the problems due to a conversion, it's easily worth a fiver (and not a rip-off at the normal $9 asking price.) At this point, I want to see The Room games succeed with one primary hope: That Fireproof Games will build a "The Room" entry for the PC itself from the ground up rather than porting. Much longer, with good keyboard/controller options, and a heavier story (current entries have simple stories and a very loose canon, but even the best story given by Old Sins are largely excuses for the puzzle.) Maybe add some more standard point-and-click fare as well to break up gameplay between puzzles now-and-then. A full meal in comparison for the modest snacks that The Room entries have all been so far.

tl;dr: Just gonna lay it out flat: This is largely a replica of the freely-available browser version, so if you think you might be interested just take that for a spin instead. That said, there are three reasons you may want to plunk down $5 (or less if it's on discount) for this version:

1. Has a very pleasant/chill soundtrack (browser game just has beeps and bloops)
   
2. Steam Achievements (currently 500+; browser game just has in-game boring badges)
   
3. To give a little financial support if you've already played the game for a while

I gave the the browser version a shot not long after it first exploded in popularity (roughly Dec 2013) and was hooked. (According to Cookie Clicker my bakery started "a long while ago" because it didn't always track the start date.) Eventually I did far more idling than clicking, but I still let it run in a tab whenever my PC was on. Once a year or so there'd be a large update and I'd give it some extra focus. I'd also ascend 1-4 times per year out of boredom, to unlock Heavenly perks and increase my prestige, spending more time in it for a few days before letting it fall back to idler status.

And this game is nearly a one-for-one replication of the browser game. (I wouldn't be surprised if it was running in some form of Chromium, in fact.) So while Cookie Clicker only released on Steam barely a day ago, I have 7+ years of experience with it. Is it a good game? Sure. You click the cookie to make cookies , buy things to click the cookie or create cookies on your behalf, unlock/buy upgrades, and a handful of micromanaging. "Minigames" such as a garden and stock market increase the gameplay variety. The achievements and their descriptions have amusing puns and references. A scrolling news ticker along the time can also offer a chuckle (oh, and unlocks.) There are business kittens and scary cookies.

But... it's still an idler game, so you get as much out of as the time you (don't) put into it. If it weren't for the browser version my recommendation would be to buy on heavy discount, though I don't think $5 standard price is bad for this (particularly with all the updates released since the initial 2013 launch.) Speaking of which, there are some fringe differences between this and the browser version:

• Heralds are now based on concurrent players (max 100) rather than the number of Patreon top pledges
  
• The existing Achievements directly translate to Steam Achievements, currently 500+ available. If you're one of those who likes massive achievement numbers, here ya go. (But these are all legit achievements, not really achievement farming... I'll circle back to this)
  
• Cloud saves mean no more lost games due to lost cookies/PC... but also means it's far harder to recover from a bad RNG. In the browser if I didn't like the result of a click, I could quickly hit F5 to reload (losing <60 seconds of progress and saving my bakery from the roll). With this you can still close the program, but the risk of an autosave occurring is larger and it's more of a hassle to get back into the game
  
• Music has been added, giving a nice, chill soundtrack made by C418 (who did music for Minecraft.) I like it, but either I need to do something to unlock more tracks or there are only 3-4 tracks as I seem to already have plenty of repeats. You could consider this a $5 album with bonus idle clicker game, which I view as a legit way to think about it

At this point I'm uncertain I'll move to the Steam version to continue my bakery into year 8 (9?) or continue in the browser, but either way I don't regret the $5 spent. Plus, if I decide to stick with the browser I can take the progress I've made in the Steam version and import it there. Ah, that's right: You can export the data from your browser instance and import it into here. I did after first launching it and received 490 Steam achievements (taking about 10 minutes to go through the whole list). So for those who have already "played" Cookie Clicker for thousands of hours, the $5 might be worth it if you like Steam Achievement bragging rights.

One thing I should note regarding my recommendation is that for the past few months the browser version has been unreliable in loading. Once it loads there's no issue, but sometimes I have to refresh the page a few times to get that load to happen. The Steam release is probably making this worse as people go to check out the browser version.

tl;dr: More of the great environments and collect-craft loop that the original Subnautica gave, Below Zero is a worthy companion game even if not a worthy successor. This game started out as DLC and that scope is reflected in the final product: lots of interesting new areas and creatures, but it is smaller and the land portion could have been ditched (not even replaced) without losing much. The story is good, but know that the larger cast (including NPCs!) gives a much different vibe than the lost-isolationist atmosphere that was a core part of the original.

Whether you, a fan of the original, should get this largely boils down to if the player-against-the-world feeling of the first was the main reason you loved it or not. If it was, this might disappoint and you should wait for a discount. If not--or if you even hated the relative silence--then you'll get great enjoyment out of this.

I feel it's important to address the story immediately. The planet, the general mechanics, and most items are carry-overs from Subnautica, so the largest changes are the story and the environments. Subnautica was an astounding game for these two reasons: the story there was largely optional, told through PDAs and delayed broadcasts, making it largely about the player surviving and trying to figure out how to leave. Each new biome you discovered was an absolute treat, from the features to the caverns to the critters (and those PDAs/broadcasts were helpful in guiding the player towards new areas.)

Originally posted by warning:

Oh, right, if you haven't already had it drilled into your head: the best experience for both this and the original is playing as blind as you possibly can. I avoid spoilers in this review but you're still better off reading only the tl;dr and skipping the rest of this review if you think you'll play it.

For Below Zero the story is both better and worse. There are actually two main stories here, which intersect but never really intertwine. It's possible to beat the game without seeing one story out, and possible to complete that story without beginning the ending-critical one. They have good beats and interesting characters, but the interactions you'll have as protagonist Robin Ayou gives a very different focus than the lone-survivor aspect of Subnautica. The low-key dread is gone, and to fill its place there are discussions about humans and flavor voice logs between people who are no longer around. Even without her eventual companion and the one other NPC, Robin is rather chatty and the very early game has her talking to herself in order to prompt the player about what to do next. While I liked the story and dialog, this hand-holding felt annoying (especially considering my time spent in Subnautica). Thankfully, it doesn't last too long and for players who want to skip the later dialog most of it seems to be "optional".

All environments in the game are new; the two exceptions would be a handful of smaller plants returning plus an equivalent to the Creepvine forest (though that still has unique changes). Many are just as beautifully crafted and awe-inspiring as the original... but there are fewer of them, and no in-game reason to return to half of them after an initial visit. A very large chunk of the playable area is taken up by an ice shelf, and about 20% of game time takes place on this. It's an obvious answer to "where do we go from a game that's largely underwater", but the entire shelf could have been cut with little loss. The leviathan-type creature that's there is simply annoying and the intended main method of traversal--the Snowfox--is difficult to control (and you get thrown from it whenever that creature appears, regardless of how close.) Despite being so huge, the biome variety is incredibly disappointing and it's quite easy to get lost. A few other biomes also feel like vast nothingness; the deepest two biomes, while initially astounding, completely lack internal variety except the one plot-point each that they contain.

All large creatures are new, with only some of the "cannon fodder" fish appearing in this side-quel. If you've played Subnautica you already know how to use (and even mostly craft) 85% the tools and items you'll be using in the game. A great addition for those who love building bases is the "Large Room", where interior walls can be placed to section off rooms as desired. For on the go, the only vehicle to carry over is my beloved PRAWN; the other two options are replaced by a modular Sea Truck. With sufficient modules, the Sea Truck makes a great home-away-from-home; it's an excellent addition despite some minor quibbles. Sadly I found the PRAWN less useful this time around; not that the functionality has changed, just that the scenarios that made it a go-to option in Subnautica don't really apply here.

Because it's built on largely the same engine, Below Zero has benefited from better execution: Even on my aging PC I experienced very little pop-in and the few bugs were annoying rather than game-breaking. There are still many areas where Robin will slide in because collision is too tight on some objects (such as rock piles) but I never got stuck in one like I did a few times in Subnautica. The original game took me about 30 hours to complete and Below Zero 25 hours, which included unnecessary sight-seeing (and wasting two hours right before the end of the game constructing a base that almost immediately became pointless.)

I greatly enjoyed my time in Below Zero and recommend it to both fans of the original and new-comers while I do believe it is overshadowed by the base game. (Making this more "sub" and less "nautica", I suppose.) I bought the EA at release for a cheaper price but I would have felt fine paying the current $30 MSPR; seeing as how the base game is the same cost, though, I can't fault someone for waiting on a discount before diving into Below Zero.

tl;dr: A fun game that you might be able to count as school credit, Nonotale is a good time for those who want to show off their typing skills--or, perhaps, just practice them in a more entertaining matter. A stronger narrative, quests, and cataloging build on the foundation set by the first Typing Chronicles, Epistory, though story and questing have plenty of room for improvement. However, the game suffers from many bugs and perhaps should have spent a bit longer in the oven. Not bad enough for a "no": none I encountered were game-breaking, just irksome, and the developer is still working on updates and fixes as of this review. Therefore, unless you have a massive hankering for typed combat (get it), hold off on buying this for another month or three after release while bugs get ironed out.

Updated 4/15/21: indicated one bug example (failed opening cutscene) has been fixed, removed ref to another bug example which turned out to be the same bug; recommendation remains unchanged

Nanotale is the Dark Souls of typing ga^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H I loved the first Typing Chronicles, Epistory. The basic gameplay remains the same in Nanotale: Type words to attack enemies and cast spells. Nanotale expands on this by introducing modifiers and having much stronger puzzle-solving mechanics. All of these are environmental--no sliding puzzles here!--and while most require a specific spell the solution still has flexibility. Unfortunately, mechanics and world interaction need better explanation, many situations require trial-and-error. A spell learned in the first act takes on a new use in the third act, and my first encounter gave the wrong information of how it needed to be used.

Just like Epistory, Nanotale has a modular difficulty system: The better you are at typing, the more complex words the game serves. The default English dictionary feels a tad limited, as many enemies had only a handful of words associated with them. (Though this creates a very subtle-but-interesting adjustment in the final fight.) While I did not give it a try, the dictionary can also be modified to include names/places/terms as you like, or for a language without official support. Touch-typing is a must-have, along with memorizing the spell terms (which is easy, as they're short): "arenas" require you to watch massive waves of enemies, and having to hunt-and-peck or review your spell list means death. Basic attacks are "free", but you'll need mana-consuming spells for large groups; unfortunately, you have to look at the very bottom of the screen to see if you have sufficient mana to cast. You also can't prep a cast while mana is regenerating.

I found the music and visuals of Epistory to be just as strong as the typing gameplay: As you explored the papercraft-stylized world, pieces of it would literally unfold in an origami-manner with beautiful tracks to everything. Nanotale keeps the great music, but the world takes a more typical fantasy setting. Gone are the fun animations and world style, but the world still looks great and now includes cataloging (not just a bestiary, but also flora and archaeology).

Ditching the paper-craft aesthetic does allow for a more complex world, with lots of levels and some nice camera work in certain sequences. It also creates more than a few bugs as your character, Rosalind, gets stuck on ledges or in barriers that can be turned on/off. This becomes more annoying when environment modification comes into play, creating bridges, and knowing where to actually walk requires trial-and-error. Some sloped terrain has non-intuitive "walls" along the lower edges that--as they are not frequent--will trip you up in arenas. The devs are aware of this, though, and you can respawn at a checkpoint from the menu to get unstuck (without losing progress, as far as I could tell from the few times I had to use it.)

Epistory did have a story, but it was more vague/ambient until the absolute end and could have been removed without hurting the game. For Nanotale, the story is... a story. It's stronger and works, but twists are generic and very easy to forget. The narration is great, even better than the first game; unfortunately, the animations of the character narrating doesn't match the energy and emotion in the voice. The first villain sounds enigmatic but their character model will look like it's doing some basic stretches. The in-game critter friends (one per biome) have the most interesting animation; I wouldn't mind a Steam sticker or something of each.

The quests could have been neat, but it felt like I wasn't assigned any of them until I did the first part without realizing it. There are side-quests where I was more aware of "accepting" them (which only requires talking to a certain NPC) but I often completed them without realizing I was about to do so. And, as side-quests didn't seem to have any impact, there just wasn't a point to them at all. I stopped talking to NPCs after the first act unless I couldn't figure out what to do, which was fine because they all look incredibly alike. The second and third act had 2-3 "important" NPCs but it's impossible for me to recall any of their names or pick them out of a line-up. (It didn't help that many seemed to transport between areas, adding to confusion.)

Nanotale suffers from a number of technical issues: It's a massive memory hog (even at the low quality setting), cutscenes can fail or be jittery, and basic barriers/paths will reset on game load or area re-entry. A specific example is that I could not get the opening cutscene to play: Rosalind would just appear on some hill, would not move, audio for the cutscene would play, and then the game would begin. After a few tries I gave up trying to watch it, but an effect of this was that all narration and sound-effects were absent and "SKIP" was still on the screen until I quit and re-loaded. (As of 4/15/21 this specific bug has been fixed.)

The game also uses an auto-save system; the checkpoints are plentiful, but the only indicator of a save is a tiny icon in the lower-right corner that flashes far too quickly. There's no way to manually save, and no indicator to tell you how long ago the last save was; I had minor worry when quitting that I was going to lose progress. My experience may be worse than average, though, as I don't meet their minimum requirements: Win7, a graphics card from five years ago, barely meet RAM requirement. But, again, their specs seem incredibly high for a game like this which probably needs a few efficiency passes.

The developer is active in the game's Discussions, though, and I expect they'll put out updates and patches for at least the largest of issues. But even if the game's current state turns out to be the game's final state, I didn't find the bugs horrible enough to recommend against the game (though I would change my recommendation to "buy on steep discount" in that case.)

While Nanotale suffers from bugs, a ho-hum story, and an almost-pointless side-quest system, the gameplay, music, and world lore collection are strong enough to make those quibbles instead of show-stoppers. If you want to put those Mario Teaches Typing results to good use in a 7-9 hour jaunt, Nanotale is right up your alley. But maybe wait a few months for kinks to get ironed out, and/or a sale that drops it at least 25%. All tale-ed, it's a good follow-up to Epistory; I look forward to a future third entry with vast improvements to the story, quest system, and engine efficiency.

And if you think this review is long... it's a typing game. Why wouldn't I type words for the review, too, maxing out Steam's character li

tl;dr: A game that straddles the line between action-adventure-crafting and idle-clicker, Forager offers a lot of entertainment. However, what could be a great time is heavily marred by a substantial lack of common mechanics and polish; I can't recall any other crafting game where grind was the second-worst problem. A boring end-game, and a focus of quantity-over-quality, makes this difficult to recommend.

It's with a heavy heart that I give a "No" recommendation, but I also can't feel good about saying "Yes". There's a lot to love in this game, but it's akin to looking at the Mona Lisa after a kid has gone to town with a marker: You know there's something beautiful underneath, but you can't ignore the lopsided mustache she now bears. (The monocle is a nice touch, though.) In particular, the game lacks basic mechanics of its brethren which makes it incredibly frustrating at times. It almost seems as though it was made first for mobile, then ported to PC, but the opposite is true. Examples of these issues, and other frustrations, include:

• Infuriating toolbar (more on that later)
  
• Lack of audio/visual damage cue on characters (never on the player; enemies sometimes do, but mostly you just watch their health bar to see if you're actually connecting)
  
• Cluttered menus
  
• Item management in menus that is one-or-all (though crafting you can choose "half")
  
• Lack of meaningful descriptions, particularly on skill unlocks
  
• Schrodinger's hitboxes, where you can't know where to aim on an enemy until you actually fire at them in order to damage them
  
• Items that are used once, don't have much purpose (as far as I've experienced), or become useless in end-game
  
• Interfering UI that covers up the world and/or prevents interaction with it

Before I dive deeper into the complaints, here are good things:
For those who love crafting and building (like I do) and checklists/completion (like I do) the game has a tremendous amount to offer. It's your common harvest-collect-craft loop, with the unique twist being that you have to buy pieces of the map rather than simply explore it out. I love this part, though it would be nice to have hints about what a piece of land holds before purchase. There's a lot of charm: Various finds, unlocks, and rewards let you customize your character; you can get a pet/familiar who will help gather fallen items; you can create and decorate rooms. Some NPCs are amusingly passive-aggressive; there are Positive Reinforcement Beets. Bosses have some nice variety (though standard enemies are quite repetitive.) The Lightning Rod is fun-as-heck, and with the upgrade to it plus the no-meter perk you're just a god of destruction as you walk around.

So you're playing the game, having a good time, but then you have to do something horrible... you need to switch which item you are holding. Of the issues the game suffers, the toolbar is the worst by far. First, there's no keybinding: You have to scroll/switch through them all to reach what you want (and you can't even change the scroll direction). Then, when non-tool items appear in your inventory they will sometimes respect the last "show on toolbar" setting you had, but whether they do or not they can insert themselves into random slots. If your toolbar is already full, this can shove off items you need. Finally, actual tools cannot be removed. Early in the game I crafted a hammer, which fixes buildings; I used it once, then almost immediately got a perk where buildings self-heal and never used it again. But it sits there in my toolbar, no way to hide it. Same goes for the fishing rod: I have traps, I don't need it, but I still crafted it and now it's just there. I have a rod that conjures skeletons. Why? They don't seem to do anything to help me and I have a perk that burns skeletons, including those I conjure. The rod is on my toolbar forever. Oh, and the toolbar also covers the very bottom of the screen so if I go all the way south I have to very nimbly move my mouse to actually aim at the square desired.

All menus are incredibly dense, yet simplistic, with inconsistent actions. Want to craft a wall? Be prepared to scroll through a huge list of structures. Want to sell 100 of an item? Press-and-hold that item until 100 are sold. Want to craft exactly 100 of an item? Click the arrow 100 times. (Maybe the "Half" button will put you nearby.) You can't increase a craft order, if you try to add more it ditches the active order instead. There's a skill tree that is an 8x8 grid, each unlocked skill reveals a neighbor. One skill will unlock Shrines. What does a shrine do? Well, wouldn't you like to know? Better unlock it and place one so you can find out! Accidentally clicked on a shrine or alter, but don't want to activate it or sacrifice a heart (respectively)? Too bad, suck it up, you're out a heart and the options weren't even useful. You upgraded a building to use nuclear material, neat, but you don't have enough materials to crank out the rods necessary so it's simpler to just destroy it and build multiple non-nuclear ones to the same effect.

The default camera movements, zoom level, and animations make it harder to see what's going on (these can all be changed in a single menu that has every option.) Accidentally pick controller when you don't have one on game start-up, because it is impossible for the game to remember your control scheme? Gotta restart. Is that an arrow pointing to a merchant or fallen star, or your cursor? Actually, where is your cursor? It easily gets lost in a ton of on-screen action. You can build a railroad, neat! But you can't switch tracks, the locomotive randomly stops or reverses if you ride too long, and if you're not in the habit of returning to it every time you may as well not bother because if you wander away it's faster to just run to wherever. You can unlock and upgrade an item that increases your XP rate, but I hit level max well before the item was fully upgraded. I walk away for a bit to let my buildings grind, with three Droids (who attack enemies, among other nice things) around me and 10 hearts, only to return 30 minutes later and find I've been slain by a single slime.

I did enjoy the game, and there is a lot to enjoy, but the end-game is incredibly slow (perhaps due to my upgrade/unlock path) and the issues add up to death-by-a-million-paper-cuts. Because the game is still receiving active updates, I'm hoping that the worst of these issues are addressed in a future one and I can come back to change my recommendation to "Yes". It's obvious a lot of love and attention went into creating by a small team (single person?) this but blood, sweat, and tears can't stand in for helpful interfaces and functionality. As it stands, this should only be picked up at a steep discount or in a Humble Bundle if you have a crafting itch you really need to scratch.

(I understand the game has a modding system, and I expect there are mods that fix many of these issues; that is no excuse for the issues in the base game.)

tl;dr: It's a slightly lesser The Room, with the exact same positives and negatives. If you like 3D, multi-step, complex puzzles then I do recommend it. However, as the most frustrating puzzle is figuring out what you can actually interact with in the first place, it's not worth more than $5 or so (about what I paid, so I'm satisfied).

There's little more to say about The House of Da Vinci that I didn't say about The Room, so here's my Room 2 Review. At least The Room tried to set up a unique story, while The House uses the trope crutch of da Vinci. Quick run-down:

• Many puzzles provide great "aha" moments
  
• There are a large variety of puzzle types
  
• Conversion from tablet/iPad was incredibly lazy, simplistic controls are very frustrating
  
• Determining what can be interacted with or focused on can be a complete crapshoot at times, both micro or macro
  
• Some puzzle steps require noticing incredibly minute details that seem like just window dressing (one step I only figured out due to a hint, which said a corner of an object looked different from the rest, but I absolutely could not figure out how and just click-dragged on all corners randomly until I found it)
  
• Some puzzles I had to brute-force, knowing roughly what needed to happen but not the "proper" steps to get there
  
• In some other puzzles I lucked into the solution just while trying to learn the mechanics

tl;dr: Portal 2 physics puzzles meet Talos Principle's story and progression. Fun, but short and the core mode isn't terribly challenging. I recommend it for anyone who likes 3D puzzlers, but maybe wait until it's on sale for $10-$15 (or $20-$25 for the deluxe edition).

Q.U.B.E 2 presents a fun romp of self-contained 3D puzzles requiring the player to manipulate grids with various effects to solve them. The mechanics are straight forward; you only get three "abilities" and other pieces are available in the rooms themselves as needed. Unfortunately, the majority of the puzzles can be flown through with only a few requiring some extra thought and advance planning. A good time, but not one that will stick with you.

Q.U.B.E. 2 encases this gameplay in a story that tries to be deep but is largely forgettable (as it seems to forget itself, mentioning things that seem important but are never brought up again.) It's not bad, but the character has a single movement speed and certain areas seemed design to force the player to listen to the entire narrative rather than get them to the next puzzle. If this game had a run button, it would easily take half of the already-short 4-6 hour completion time for the core. DLC is enticing, but the core didn't impress me enough to jump into it immediately while the rest of my backlog sits around waiting.

While the design of many areas is intentionally minimal, the game is overall gorgeous with many unique one-off pieces. It's too bad the most interesting area is the final room, which the game only uses for a cutscene. Few of the puzzle rooms are visually distinct in-and-of themselves beyond the layout that enables the puzzle, causing gameplay and story to largely be silo'd from each other.

Overall, I would recommend this game to anyone who is a fan of 3D puzzlers, but it's one that could be slept on. With only a few hours of content the normal $25 price seems a bit steep, so wait for a discount in the $10-$15 range. The Deluxe edition, with its two puzzle packs, might be more worthwhile but probably not more than $25 itself.

This is, primarily, a pee management simulator. You can set up systems to turn pee into oxygen (after multiple steps). You can use pee to water crops, directly and indirectly. Pee can be used to extract oil. You can put fish in the pee, and also eat the fish after they die in the pee. (Depending on the world you spawn, you may find pre-existing pools of pee with fish in them.) Pee can be used to cool or warm your colony. If you do well enough, you get to send pee into space.

And it's an exceptional pee management simulator~

UPDATE 11/23/22: In my continual digging I have discovered there are pee volcanoes. This is simply astounding, the universe is just full of wonderful surprises.

UPDATE 11/21/23: Thanks to the Spaced Out! DLC, you are now able to teleport pee between asteroids. Science!