Recent reviews by Individual #1

hot damn.

This game is intense, and already damn near a perfect shooter in its very early state. The audio especially is fantastic, with muffled scratching as fabric moves over your mic; and gunshot sounds making me nearly piss myself the first time I played.

10/10, amazing

Hour 1:
This game sux, combat is awful

Hour 10:
This game is good, I just sucked at combat

Hour 20+:
Running naked through the arena smashing pots on people's heads, unkillable god of combat, still never surviving a run

I ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ LOVE this stupid little game. Somehow they have distilled the essence of gaming down into this pure crack.

Don't be fooled by my low Steam hours; I have had this game running in the browser interface *literally* nonstop since I bought it 30 days ago.

This is a half-idler game; where you click buttons and let numbers go up. That might not lead you to expect much; but there is a Sims-esque "always one more thing to do" gameplay cycle. It's as idle or as non-idle as you want it to be, with a hugely rewarding passive grind balanced with fun active gameplay and tons of mechanics & content to explore. Numbers go up, mood goes up!

I spend more time on this game than any other these days and have increasingly started using it as a life timer/motivator boost. It feels great to spend a solid 4 hours working at my actual job; then check Melvor on my lunch break and see my progress - it helps provide a video game-esque dopamine cycle to real-world work.

Melvor has consumed me. It has been running nonstop since the day I bought it. I am playing it right now. I will be playing it 2 years from now. Melvor is now a part of my life that I would struggle to do without.

This is a simulation, not a game. It has a steep initial learning curve, intricate mechanics, and a great deal of depth. The tutorials alone are about 2+ hours long.

If you have an interest in city planning, civil engineering, or logistics, you'll probably find a lot to like in this game. Everything is as realistic as the dev can make it. Things that are a single button-press in other games, like demolishing a building, require an entire logistics chain here.

This is the type of game that you'll dump hundreds of hours & dozens of YouTube tutorials into.

I see the potential; but this game is currently very early access.

Get inserted onto a map. Kill AI dudes and steal gear; then get to the extraction point. Definitely not as fleshed out in the risk/reward cycle as it should and hopefully will be. The AI & enemy numbers could both stand to be improved; but overall worth $10-15.

Definitely better with friends.

Fantastic political simulator/visual novel. Not normally my type of genre, but this one hooked me. Does a fantastic job of explaining politics (and their stakes) very clearly and succinctly. It can make even a moron like me feel like a great statesman.

Edit: I am not a great statesman. I crashed the economy and was the victim of a military coup.

If you like tower defense games and/or MOBAs, there's a good chance you'll like this mash-up of the two. A bit of a learning curve; but if you're willing to learn through trial and error (or look up build guides) you can get in without too much effort.

Each player defends their own lane with towers, but can send mobs to enemies' lanes to make things harder for them. Each match is an intense balancing act. The more you save resources to build up a large attack on your opponent; the more you leave yourself vulnerable to one of theirs.

The best $10 I have ever spent

Every once in a while, a game comes along and mashes everything good from every other hit game into a single, successful package.

Take a huge helping of legally distinct Pokemon, throw in BOTW's movement and exploration, some Valheim-esque survival and building systems, a dash of Satisfactory, and make it all multiplayer.

Despite the controversy, no indications of shady practices gameplay-wise (yet) - no premium shop, DLC packages, etc. Just a lot of really good game for a good price.

Also runs pretty well on the Steam deck, albeit with the odd crash (not too surprising in early access).

Probably worth waiting for a sale, but an easy-to-pick-up, highly engaging puzzle sort of game. Collect crops, build a "deck" of crops and abilities to work with, and try to maximize profits. Very easy to sink a few hours into.