Скорошни рецензии на LittleThiefCat

Steam really needs a neutral option. My gut instinct was to hate everything at first, but after playing a multiplayer game for two hours, I've warmed up on it. The new gameplay mechanics are legitimately interesting and enjoyable, and we only had a single desync that lasted all of five seconds (a MAJOR improvement from our games in VI).

That said, there are parts of this game that had us seriously asking if they released an early or reviewer build by mistake. The UI is awful, both practically and graphically (offcenter images, things not lined up properly, awful kerning, twenty different fonts on the screen at once, icons that are impossible to see, the list goes on.) I can build improvements on rivers, and the game still counts those tiles as rivers, but the river itself is completely gone graphically. There's incorrect text displayed consistently.

In addition to the parts that feel incomplete, while I'm enjoying the new gameplay mechanics, there are other design choices that I'm not a fan of. I mainly play these games with a large group of friends, so not being able to play together is awful (fortunately it does sound like they're prioritizing bumping up the player counts). Civ VI had the issue of having so many notifications the actually important ones get lost in the shuffle-- Civ VII has rectified this by eliminating 95% of them, so you basically have to be pixel hunting to find out if you've discovered something important. The options for setting up a game (at least in antiquity) are completely barebones. It's also a little frustrating that only around a third of the leaders at launch are women, though I am very happy about the choices for who they are.

I'll update this review in a few patches, because I think if the devs listen to feedback, this is going to be an excellent addition to the series.

This is the first idle game that's really clicked with me, maybe in part because you can choose to idle or play actively as much as you want. I fully completed it and now there is a void in my life where this game used to be. Time to restart on harder worlds!

This is a surrealist masterpiece. I also appreciate that the horror oriented sections have varying gameplay mechanics and feels, which helps keep the game feeling fresh all throughout.

This is a fun little analog horror game that was clearly made with a lot of love. That said, it definitely leans more black comedy than scary, and I'm not sure how intentional that is.

I personally had a blast with the puzzles. If anything I found most of them too easy. I'm looking forward to going back and purposefully failing everything for all the fun consequences. I'm also looking forward to picking up the DLC, which reviews indicate has a difficulty spike. Would love to see a hard mode for the base game!

This is one of those games I wish there was a neutral option for. Though it's flashier than the first game, it's a lot worse. There's just too much tedium involved scrolling through menus. As other reviewers have said, it isn't fun, it's just padding. On top of that, the shopkeeper's voice is grating, the story is a waste of time, and the game is riddled with bugs and spelling errors. It's worth picking up if you enjoyed the first one and want some more puzzles, but be prepared to have to deal with a clunky experience to actually get to them.

This is worth full price for Grimstone alone.

I 100%ed the game and all DLCs and wish there was more. Despite the Lovecraftian setting and themes, this is a very cozy and relaxing game. My only complaint is that there isn't much meat to the story.

This DLC was fun but frustrating, not because the puzzles were too difficult, but because it really required you to be in the exact same mindset as the puzzle's creators to get some of the right answers. For example, there is one level where you need to sort three stacks of black and beige books based on various features of the books. However, one of the solutions instead requires you to stack all the books on top of eachother in size order so that only the black books are visible. I don't mind that some of the solutions require a change in how you perceive the structure of the puzzle, but if you figure out that you need to make only one color visible and pick beige instead of black? That doesn't solve it! Unfortunately there isn't really a good way to address this issue beyond extra playtesting before release-- it's a natural consequence of making the puzzles more complex with additional details but the creators only having their own perspectives to work off of.

Critique aside, I do recommend the DLC! Just don't feel bad if you need to use hints sometimes.

This is a great story that hits a lot harder in 2024 than I imagine it did when it originally released. That said, while the story is superb, the execution is lacking. Having the ability to read a visual novel in essentially any order you want means that there can be no real pacing, something that is only sort of addressed with the real life time gates and later game file unlocks. After reading the last file and getting my ending dialogue, I was left with a feeling of "that's it? there's nothing else?" Still, I highly recommend this one, especially given today's political climate.

I feel kind of bad leaving a negative review on someone's short and free passion project, but this just isn't a good game. The controls are a love letter to ps1 horror games, which is to say the game is barely playable. The fixed camera angles constantly block the one singular "scare" of the game (if it can even be called that). The store page says you interact with a cast of quirky characters, by which it means one singular guy. Finally, what little atmosphere the game tries to build up is constantly killed by what is probably supposed to be funny dialogue, but none of it really lands. I don't understand how this has so many positive reviews both here and on itchio.