Recent reviews by Ingrid Buzzkiller

First 3 points about mechanics, bear with me there, fun staff after that. Skip if you want!
Dungeon of the Endless is a strategy game with a lots of interesting micro-management and nice RPG and tower defense mechanics inside.

You control a team up to 4 heroes and you need to clear the level, opening new doors to reveal the whole level and find the exit. Simultaneously, you need to collect resources and gold to upgrade units, open new stations and get the said resources from them.

You can pause any moment, so you don't need a quick reaction for that game, you need to plan your path forward and, basically, you are the one building the path that you will need to tower defense later. You can lit new rooms with gold, but you will almost always have more rooms than gold, and dark rooms spawn monsters that you need to kill.

So, enough about mechanics. What makes this game fun?
1. It's always different. Heroes, items, floors, it's always a new combination and the game makes everything to make itself different and replayable each time. It gets very good at it. You can always find and test something new, you are free to experiment.
2. It's always cool and just a little cheesy. This game has a lot of flavor, little party-related quests that all you need to do to complete is to survive: each floor will open a new line of dialogue. When the quest is done, you get a bonus for the team! But's that's not the good part, the flavor is for everything here: items have a fun style description, each hero has it's own little lore which match their stats and ultimately gives you a hint for the best style then can be played with.
3. It's beautiful. This game has a lot of thought and love put into it. In-game artbook is an encyclopedia, interesting in itself, gives an overview for heroes and monsters and done in a cool style. Despite pixel graphics, the game is very easy to read and enjoyable to watch.

It's good in home, it's good on the way, and it's almost impossible to get tired of that game. If you cannot find something new to do, just look up for challenges that must be done to open new game styles and for achievements, some of which are very curious to get.

Have fun! This game worth its money.

I dedicated many long hours to Duskers trying to get better at them and want to recommend this game. It's about isolation and loneliness: you are the only human survivor of the unknown disaster that wiped the whole universe out leaving only debris, empty ships and some wild beasts, both robotic and organic.

Your task it to scavenge anything you can with a team of customizable drones and do not lose them in the process. There is a range of instruments you can attach to them, including some weaponry.

But this is really more of a realtime tactics game, where you need to quickly scan the surroudings and act upon what you find, avoiding/eliminating threats and saving rare and precious resources.

I think it'll suit anyone who's into hacker/GITS-type operator flavor because the game is heavily relying on it: any in-game commands must be given through the console which gives you a really cool feeling that you are sitting alone in your spaceship, looking into the monitor and trying to read out what the hell is waiting in the corner for your drone to get close.

The developer worked solo in this game, and I've read his blog: his words about the struggle while working on it really moved and allowed me to understand better what's really got into this game, what are the emotions that driven it.

SPOILERS AHEAD
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The game doesn't have an end and doesn't have a certain ending. You have some clues about what happened, but as far as I know, none of them really lead anywhere.
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SPOILERS END

This game is strongly about the process, about the movement ahead despite the loneliness and heavy conditions. But I like it, I like the flavor and I like the possibilities to customize any commands through aliases and form your own way of playing this game.

It also helps with my anxiety at times, so meditating it is at times.

Worth its money!

Islanders are described pretty good in its own trailer: it's a city builder for points. It's nice, it's relaxing, it helps me with my anxiety at hard days.

It's not very hard to get and to master, and it's very pleasant to understand the best building combinations and try them out on a new island.

I want to recommend this game if you're looking for something new and not very demanding of any resources. That game lets you just have fun and does not punish you for making mistakes and learning. Build what you like, what you want, choose your own path on this island.

If you do not want to score anything, you can launch sandbox mode and build your own city as you'd like which is very useful if you want to prepare for the DnD session, for example =).

Have fun! It is worth its price.

Heat Signature is made by Tom Francis: he's writing the game himself with some help from his friends for the design, OST and art.

He's so cool that made the whole course out of his experience: how to create games all alone from scratch: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUtKzyIe0aB2HjpmBhnsHpK7ig0z7ohWw
Spoiler: there aren't so many courses like that, the first-hand experience of making the game, with all the tools, from A to Z. Especially free, especially with the direct contact with Francis.

Heat Signature is his second game after the Gunpoint: detective puzzle about breaking the glass windows by throwing people through them. Both games are... puzzles of a sort, it's like a Rubic's cube but you can break skulls and glasses with it after you finish.

Not that you can't do that in Real Life... but you will not be a detective or in space with it, will you?

So, to the game.

You are the mercenary and you have access to the whole range of tools: teleporter that switches you with people, a teleporter that takes you back after a few seconds, teleporter... a lot of them. And a lot of guns, even the gun that shoots guns. And teleporters. And everything.
It's a roguelike and a good one, very clever and elaborate one so the replayability is infinite. I've got 58 hours and still hasn't grown tired of it. Challenges and puzzles are just... too catchy, too different every time.

The game always has what to offer and pushes you to think "but can I do it... like that? Or like that? Can I do that without getting shot? Or seen? Or without a teleport? Or only with one teleport or one bullet?" It's like your mind so hooked on these puzzles that it starts to always need more, to look for things you haven't tried or didn't think of.

Even it's Steam cards are actually PLAYER STORIES. About the most ridiculous mistakes and clever ways out of them.
Tom collected them and made cards out of them. And you can get and read them and actually find a trick you didn't know before! And get and test it and be amazed by what this game can do. Every time.

Heat Signature also has a setting and a pretty funny one: for example, Glithers faction that accidentally teleported the whole fleet from home to god knows where and now steals food to survive by their teleporters. And every time they use teleporters, they... burn their body and create a new one. That's how teleporters, all of them, works. Body, brain: fried. But the mind, the pattern, the person survives. If something goes wrong and the copy didn't fry, they have a law that you have an hour to kill it before it becomes a crime. You get to choose who gets to live: the new you or the old you.

And they are pretty happy about their way. As all other factions which are ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up on the same scale but in a different way. There's a faction that will never kill you but you will wish they would. It's really good and pretty flavor, that's a good puzzle, that's stylish graphics and catchy OST, that's Heat Signature.

When this did come out, I forgot about life for about a week or so. Played even in my office (didn't get kicked out.)

Pyre — история о личностях, которые волею судеб оказались в Downside, неком Чистилище для нарушивших законы великой страны.

Это путешествие, в котором главное не победите вы или проиграете, не "футбол", как описывают геймплей Ритуалов и не прочитать все диалоги. Здесь главное — какие решения вы примете по пути. Например, обратите ли вы внимание, что одна из ваших спутниц краснеет при виде одного из ваших соперников? Дадите ли им шанс снова поговорить или устремитесь к победе?

За время игры вы познакомитесь с большим количеством персонажей и пройдёте с ними через беды, радости, через самые тяжёлые моменты их жизни, проживёте с ними их тяжёлые воспоминания и поможете им с ними справиться. Вам придётся всегда быть для них рядом, и они ответят взаимностью, если вдруг станет тяжело вам. Это путешествие, где в какой-то момент нарисованные персонажи, говорящие на несуществующем для вас языке, вдруг отчётливо станут вашими близкими и друзьями. И как ваше сердце будет болеть за них, так их сердце будет болеть за вас.

Я давно не видел игры, в которой я так бы много плакал от надрыва и количества чувств, вложенных в неё. Она отдаёт сторицей каждому, кто пытается это узнать и почувствовать сам.

Говоря «история», я подразумеваю, что вы проникнетесь ею, как голосом Рассказчика из Bastion, первой игры студии Supergiant Games или личностью Рэд, главной героини Transistor, второй их игры. Она поглотит вас и заберёт с собой в этот мир. И все, с кем вы здесь познакомитесь, останутся в вашем сердце навсегда.

И нужно отдать должное саундтреку и художественной работе. Как и всегда, когда дело касается Супергигантов, всё нарисовано вручную и абсолютно потрясает детализацией, цветами и красотой. Саундтрек — это не просто музыка для сопровождения, а песни, которые были написаны и исполняются в рамках мира, в который вы попали. Это продуманная и проникновенная музыка, которая тем больше для вас значит, чем больше вы знаете о мире игры.