Recent reviews by Popeye

What seemed like a simplistic but cute auto-shooter when it first came into EA is now bigger than originally planned for 1.0 and getting better every patch. Developer actually cares and updates the game regularly. I thought I'd get 10 hours out of a $3 game but I'm over 40 and counting, new weapons, characters, and more challenging modes keep being added.

Core gameplay is actually pretty enjoyable despite the jankiness (how many tower defense games have towers that regularly fail to hit the target?). However, the deficiencies cannot be ignored. Nearly half the towers are just obviously bad on a mechanical level - as in, you are likely to demolish them after seeing what they do and never use them again. Two towers are the same thing but different elements. A majority of the unlockable cards are bland filler giving very low-value stat upgrades, and as of the latest patch the desirable cards are now gated behind those cards. Mana management used to be a boring task that required one card unlock and some gold expenditure; now it's a boring task that requires half a dozen card unlocks and even greater gold expenditure.

This isn't even getting started on the lack of basic QOL features that are missing - most notably, the game cannot be sped up, a game in progress cannot be saved and resumed later, and a single run takes well over an hour, maybe more like two if you get a really long path. I've had to leave the game paused while I ate dinner then come back to finish and sometimes abandoned runs because I had other things to do, so if you miss that part of the 80s this game has you covered.

In short, key features that you expect are missing and the game has a lot of filler content in the form of useless unlocks that actually dilute the good content. Problems go unfixed while core balance gets jerked around by seemingly random updates. Game is not in early access.

It's fun if a bit thin in its present state, but it has good bones. Already options for importing images for signs and logos, color customization options on most things, plenty of sandbox potential. Once the gameplay is fleshed out, even just the obvious things that are presently missing (like actual refrigeration/spoilage, for example), this is gonna go straight to the moon.

First colony went ok, built in the boreal mountains. Fall comes along, and my food stores are not looking good. A trade caravan shows up, but instead of having food for me, all they have is a bunch of expensive livestock, including boomalopes. Yes, livestock that explodes!

I thought I Was screwed.

Then an invasion of mad boomrats (smaller things that explode!) attack, but go straight for the caravan, creating a chain reaction of explosions from boomrats to boomalopes, setting fire to the traders, killing them all.

...and that's how meat was back on the menu, boys.

+ The basic mechanic of a tycoon/sim game is given a glorious shakeup by making your "sims" hate you. While your prisoners will act against your interests, you must always act to benefit them, making for an asymmetrical relationship that works well in this type of game.
+ With the latest patch adding snipers and guard towers, most of the major subsystems you expect in a prison are available in some form.
+ Simple aesthetic that works well and keeps everything easy to see.
+ Very smart NG+ feature lets you sell your prison, letting you build bigger and better things from the start while making you still earn the progress.
+ Due to the nature of the game, running a prison is just as fun as building it, avoiding a major pitfall of many building games.
+ Escape mode lets you play from the other side of things, adding even more life to the game and a whole new building goal (making a fun prison to escape from).

- The big one: pathing is sometimes awful. Prisoners path well enough most of the time, but guards regularly get hung up on concrete walls, and doctors require frequent babysitting. This results in the occasional completely BS death as well as untold gnashing of teeth as you micromanage large prisons.
- Punishments are one dimensional. Prisoners can be given lockup or solitary time for infractions, but all this does is suppress them temporarily (make them obedient), and some are immune. Meanwhile their needs build up, making them more likely to offend again. There are no tiers of long-term punishment/privilege, the AI cannot learn to behave better to receive better privileges, nor can you assign increased security protocol such as requiring shackles when outside their cell at all times, or shackling before removing from cell, etc.
- There are some gaps in available staff. You have basic guards with batons and tasers, armed guards with shotguns, K9 guards, and now snipers. There are riot guards available as *temporary* emergency units, when most maximum security facilities would keep such personnel on staff at all times. Likewise, you can't set protocol for handling situations; you might like guards to wait for backup before opening cells, but you can't make them do that, and they will die as a result.
- Gangs need balancing. They're an optional feature, but an extremely cool one, so it's a shame that there's not much to help deal with the challenge they present.
- Lots of rooms are superfluous. There's no need at all to have such basic things as a yard, a common room, etc. Contracts require them but a prison without them can function exactly as well as one with them.

All in all, 9/10 would recommend to fans of the genre, of any experience level.

My original review was given shortly after launch, and discussed significant problems and bugs with the launch version. This review has been updated to reflect updates to the DLC.

+Dozens of new items, with an impressive variety of effects, including many that were highly requested by the fan community. New and existing items get significant synergy updates, essentially more items now interact in bizarre and delightful ways, and everyone rejoiced. This alone justifies the DLC. This is what most people are looking for, and it delivers.

+New playable characters with completely new mechanics. Both are reasonably playable compared to the existing character set from Rebirth, one is an obvious challenge character but with an interesting new twist.

+Existing character "The Lost" is revamped into essentially a very difficult but playable character rather than a sadistic challenge character. Opinions will differ on this but it's fair to say that the average player was not doing regular runs with Rebirth Lost, and the changes don't actually change the character fundamentally.

+New play modes, both solo play and daily challenges. Greed mode offers a completely new play style; 10 additional solo challenges are added along with unlocks for all of them; daily challenges are scored and sometimes include special gimmicks for special occasions. Also includes a new secret bonus boss in the main game.

+New easter eggs, and an easter egg menu once you unlock them. Notably, you can turn on enhanced gore without even disabling unlocks, and you can enable invincible co-op babies so a player of much less skill can play alongside you without wrecking the game on the first floor (unlocks disabled for this mode).

+General balance changes and tweaks that obviously took fan feedback into account - for example, sacrifice rooms now have a discernable and rewarding mechanic that makes them an interesting option to have on some floors rather than hot garbage as they were in Rebirth. Just all around, the main game mode has been improved, as it should be.

-Daily challenges have obvious and openly acknowleged cheat scores every single day. Third party sites are used as a more accurate metric than the in-game leaderboard.

-Greed mode is okay but has very weird balance with the characters, and essentially forces grinding money for unlocks, which feels somewhat out of place compared to the way most achievements are gained. Most people still just play the main game 95% of the time after getting the unlocks and nobody takes greed mode seriously as a play mode.

- The new "secret level" is just a super boss, not a full fledged extra final floor. It's not bad at all, it's just not what was hoped for.

-For whatever unthinkable reason, infinite final level looping via a specific item was nerfed (i.e. completely disabled). I truly hope someone was fittingly punished for this decision.

-Still no online co-op. Surely it has been discussed that few people have local friends with equal skill levels in BOI to play this game as local co-op. Why is this specifically a negative to this DLC? Because it includes a veritable garbage bin of co-op babies. Dozens upon dozens of disgusting and awesome babies that the vast majority of players will never even see in action, and you MUST unlock them all to get the final platinum trophy. This will have any reasonable person shaking their fist in righteous anger.

Overall, the DLC is now a must-buy, just as WOTL was for the original. The bugs have been ironed out, the balance is still highly questionable just as you like it, and there are more dead babies than you could fit in a blender.

Hundreds of hours don't lie. This game is sublimely good.

ToG is a very straightforward game. Your mission is to climb a tower of guns, fighting lots of things with guns, using your choice of gun.

This is not a bad thing. This game thrives on fundamentals - fast strafing, environmental awareness, staying on target, and exploring every corner. Consequently, despite being a reasonably difficult game (particularly if we take "completion" in the scope of getting stars with every gun and perk), the learning curve is much less than many "rogue lite" type games. If you understand the basics of arcade style FPS, you will not struggle to learn this game.

You start each run by choosing a gun and a perk, which is pretty standard fare - but the game distinguishes itself with well designed weapons and perks that alter and enhance gameplay rather than simply having an "optimal" choice. As you progress, you upgrade your weapon and find randomly placed or dropped badges (passive buffs) and items (similar in style and implementation to the common rogue-lite "use item" or "spacebar item", with infinite uses on a recharge meter), ultimately shaping the run into something different every time.

Graphics are simple but in a cel-shaded style that generally looks good without being complicated; anyone who's played Borderlands series will find the look (if not the style) pretty familiar. Of special note, the game supports absurdly high FOV settings, which is just a real tip of the hat to anyone using ultrawide or multimonitor setups, and is greatly appreciated! The music is catchy and matches the game nicely.

So is it fun? In a word: yes. It's a great pick up and play that caters to fans of arcade FPS. It's not exactly a casual game, but rather one made for gamers who want that "always new" shooter for when they need that fix. It does a great job at that - if the game description sounds like something you'd like, ToG delivers.

One of the better retraux-style games out there, it combines DOS era graphics and gameplay with a more refined, modern style of level design, which really just works. Level design really is great, very fair levels with fun and varied layouts, accessible to a casual player but the higher difficulties will remind you of the good old days.

Points for both authenticity (includes 16Hz mode!) and playability. Best of both worlds.

This is the greatest PC game I've played since Civilization II or SimCity 2000, or the original DooM. It's a rare thing for a game to approach gameplay nirvana, but M&B does exactly that.

However, buyers may as well be aware that this game is fully intended for a hardcore audience. If you're the kind of gamer who would be frustrated spending 10 hours just learning how to not suck at a game, this will make you rip your hair out. If, however, you're the kind of gamer who thinks 10 hours to learn to play a game that takes hundreds of hours to master is a good trade, this is exactly your game.