Recent reviews by Steen

While the game probably won't receive any new content from Valve themselves, it puts a smile on my face to see that TF2 is getting their attention again and community content that's been implemented has been better chosen and of incredibly higher quality.

Even 17 years later this game is still amazing to play and I've only been here for ten of them.

REPUBLISHED & UPDATED (9/20/24): Patch 9 for the game fixed a majority of issues I had, with bizarrely long load times, horrifically stuttering intro sequence, and the completely stupid allocation loading screen. This game is extremely playable on lower-end SSDs now and the removal of Denuvo made the game run about 20% better in almost all areas. I can now fully recommend the Steam version UNLESS you want achievements, which are currently bugged due to the EA App integration.

I will admit, I waited until the Winter 2023 sale to buy this game, since I do not support games by spending $70 for the "base game experience." However, the $35 I spent led to me discovering a complete sleeper hit from this year.

I played Fallen Order in 2022 and was genuinely surprised that it was a solid combat game with metroidvania style exploration, but the story fell flat in the end and the combat didn't feel... "Free." To put it in a basic sense.

Jedi: Survivor completely blows all of the stuff Fallen Order did out of the water. If you are a metroidvania connoisseur, love Souls-like style combat, love action RPGs or hell even all of the above, this game is quite possibly your GotY. Unless you're not a Star Wars fan, then you might only like the game in the end.

On top of that, the story is straight up one of the best pieces of writing in 2023. Dare I say the next best Star Wars media since Empire Strikes Back. I actually got very emotional in the last third of the game and I still feel the impact months later.

9.9/10: The game ain't completely perfect cause there's some ridiculous force tear challenges that are not fun on higher difficulties (I play on Jedi Master, the second hardest), and I am slightly disappointed the perk system is kind of weak in the end and only the more expensive/drastic ones are better to use.

Portal Reloaded is a shockingly good mod. Like, REALLY good.

Built on Portal 2's base, it is a mod that adds 25 unique test chambers centered around an entirely new mechanic, being Time Portals. These portals take the player into the future, allowing them to complete puzzles in four unique dimensions. You can place portals in the Future but any changes in the Past also affect said Future. Besides the colored Gels, this mod takes advantage of every mechanic from Portal and creates what feels like a proof of concept but as a full game. The developers did an astonishingly good job with creating the Time Portal mechanic. It made my brain hurt a couple of times with having to orientate myself in both time spaces and using portals. That shows how good it is.

Though, I do feel like it does lack in some areas. While I understand that this mod was made within the limitations of the game's raw assets, I feel like it ends kind of abruptly. I really wanted more out of this mechanic, I could do as many as 70 of these puzzles alone with varying mixes of each base game mechanic. I really hope they make more, or at least... Maybe a Co-Op version?

9.2/10 - Worth the try, cause it's free. If you've played Portal 2, you should play this mod.

Subnautica has taught me two things.

1. All life is precious, no matter how dangerous or beautiful.

2. Screaming at virtual alien fish is a pretty good time passer.

Other than that it's an amazing sandbox survival game that flips the concept over its head with a very subtle storyline and near infinite ways to customize your adventure. The game has just the right dose of challenge, making annoying and benign tasks way more intense and fuses them as part of the experience. And depending on your level of courage, you could either stay in the lifepod for actual days or have wrestled a Reaper Leviathan to death with a P.R.A.W.N. Suit twelve hours in.

This game is easily one of my favorite experiences and has shown me a new perspective on games around this genre. I highly recommend this game to anyone who's into this kind of stuff.

Deep Rock Galactic is one of the best Co-Op games I have ever played.

In this game you will find out that in darkness, there is danger. And where there is danger there are gross, vulgar, wisecrack dwarves who mine for gold and materials day in and day out for an old shanty and hootenanny back in the hub.

But besides the sheer personality this game has, it will challenge your perception of teamwork. Four classes in the game that take on different roles with a small arsenal of weapons with a myriad of different combinations of upgrades and overclocks.

Progression in this game is entirely bent on your abilities alone, and it will show as you grow and get better. Within the first two hundred hours you will only have half of the things you need to take on the most difficult missions this game will throw at you.

And to top it all off, this game has a sparkling community of great people who not only want to have a good time but also want to try their hardest to win it for all of us.

Deep Rock Galactic is recruiting anyone they can find. If you're looking for something that'll knock your block off so you can get up, spit it out the blood, and try harder...

We will leave no dwarf like you behind. And I especially recommend this game to anyone who loves Co-Op games.

A Hat in Time

Probably one of the best indie games to use a 3D Mario game's cloak to make it as its own. By that, I mean it's a great platformer. However there are some drawbacks to it that might set back upcoming players. I'll explain below.

In my opinion, A Hat in Time has massive potential to combat the mission-based style of Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine, but there are some things holding it back. I'll get my criticisms out of the way first before I delve into what I do like.
- The camera needs to be wrangled in order to do something you want to do. It can be a bit of a gamble whether or not you're actually going to land on a platform or to tell how far you are from certain obstacles, which this is caused by the camera prioritizing horizontal angles over a full 360 control. I sometimes wish I could be platforming above Nyakuza Metro and be able to look down at the people scurrying to their next stop, or I could see where I'm going to land because depth perception is also a bit of an issue.
- Not knocking the design, but I feel like for how the game is structured, chapters and acts are usually cleared within a couple minutes instead of a lengthy amount of time. I've managed to beat the game in 15 hours but that's because I was going for collectibles and the DLC campaigns.
- Aside from going from point A to point B, there isn't a lot of collectibles or stuff to do, with the exception of Subcon Forest, which takes the exploration idea and does it at its best with having the most Rift Tokens base game too. I wish other areas followed this principle, but I'll give Battle of the Birds a pass since it's purely mission area based.

Now for what I loved about A Hat in Time:
- The absolute charm the game has, stuffing cute and awesome details all over the place.
- Each chapter's design is completely distinguishable from one another, and they all feel amazing.
- The characters are amazing, and the voicework put in is actually really good.
- There's tons of outside collectibles from levels which will put you looking into workshop content to get them all.
- The DLC is really, really good. Nyakuza Metro especially makes animated in-game cutscenes look spectacular and flow really well.
- 50-Player Online is the best decision made for this game. You can do so much, although I wish players completing missions could work together instead of having things be mostly client based.

If you love 3D platformers or love Mario 64 or Sunshine for the gameplay, this game is very much for you.

8.9/10

Subnautica: Below Zero is a fantastic sequel to the original, which already captivated many users of the survival genre, including myself. This game however does a lot different compared to the original game that probably will put off some people.

What you get;
1. Full frontal story that puts light into more aspects of the Subnautica series.
2. New and interesting game mechanics that further enhance base customization.
3. New creatures and Leviathan-class species that are a challenge to defeat.
4. Roughly the same length of playtime compared to the Original.

What you lose;
1. Overall scope; The map size has been reduced to compensate for the story and new mechanics.
2. Difficulty; This game has an unstable balance for how hard it needs to be to survive.
3. Strange story; With parts that are very interesting, there are also parts that are very awkward.

Overall, I still greatly recommend Below Zero to anyone, as long as they have played the Original first.

8.5/10.

Plants Vs. Zombies is your average casual PopCap game.

But aside from that, it is an extremely deep Strategy game that relies on quick thinking and knowledge of your tools. It has five essential modes; Adventure, Minigames, Zen Garden, Endless, and Puzzle.

To unlock everything, you must play Adventure mode to the fullest, which isn't actually a chore but more of an addicting experience. Through Adventure Mode, every level you complete unlocks a new Plant to use universally, opening up different strategies among the various modes and tons of minigames. After you complete Adventure mode, you can start again with all the Plants you unlocked before, offering infinite replayability.

As you play through, you unlock Crazy Dave's shop (Crazy Dave is who you meet early on), where you can buy tools for your Zen Garden or items that greatly help your playthrough in Adventure, like more slots to use Plants.

Plants Vs. Zombies offers a near limitless replayability offer in exchange for an amazing strategy game. A must-buy, even for how much of a steal this is now.

Now... Where do I begin?

When Undertale was released in Sptember 2015 and a bunch of Youtubers started playing it, I got very confused. Like, what the hell was going on? Anywhere I looked in the internet shortly after the game's launch I would see players changing their names to the various characters from the game. Oho! But that was only the START of my hatred towards Undertale. The entire game's community as a whole surrounded other people. The game even hit the damn news once! It pulled me into hating Undertale with a burning passion for nearly it's first year. That was until... A friend of mine showed me the final boss of the Genocide route. I denied the offer many times, until he convinced me to see it. That's when I heard the infamous song; Megalovania.
It wasn't very long until I started peeking into the OST of Undertale and started finding a ton of songs that I REALLY like. Then, after generating much interest, I bought the game myself. And let me tell ya', I was not disappointed.

UNDERTALE - By Toby Fox.

Undertale is a small but large RPG inspired by games such as Earthbound. The goal of the game is entirely dependent on what you do. Whether you never land a finger on someone or wipe out every monster in the Underground, Your actions dictate the outcome of the game.

There are generally three routes that players have dubbed because of the actions you pull. These are:

- The Pacifist Route: Never kill anyone, befriend a LOT of people, and Save The World.
- Neutral Route: Killing is optional. It's what most players do when they first start Undertale.
- The Genocide Route: Kill absolutely everything with no hesitation. This is where the REAL fun begins if you like to kill.

Generally, the maximum playtime to get all three routes done consecutively is around 15 Hours. 6 1/2 for Neutral, the same if you do Pacifist after. Genocide takes roughly 8 Hours cause of certain battles and a grueling Final Boss of that route.

I will not spoil anything in this review, but depending on the route you first choose, you will recieve emotions you normally wouldn't face in a game like this.

Undertale is a game everyone should try. It is a game that displays a message hidden within it's normal indie looks. It is a game that tests you. And it is a game that can change a person.

Final Rating: 9.3/10 - A game that has a mixed reputation but is actually amazing. Definitely a game worth checking out.

I recently revisited this game on the whim of being very bored one night, and I wasn't really surprised that in 2024 this game is basically on community life support.

Blockland Glass, a community created mod manager and social tool, at some point the past couple years was compromised and hijacked and the entire infrastructure of the platform had to be migrated to a new host to prevent further losses. The problem was, they basically left behind the entire archive of RTB (Return to Blockland) add-ons which is roughly a decade of mods now lost to time, and basically killed their online chat and friends list and have not made many efforts since then if at all to restore these things.

To keep it plain and simple, this game is effectively dead. The only thing keeping it alive is the very, very small handful of incredibly talented developers who continue to make games and experiences. Any hopes of this game having a resurgence after Brickadia's sus as hell controversies is dead in the water because of what I assume is laziness out of the Blockland Glass devs. A decade's worth of old mods and add-ons are lost media and none of the original experience of Blockland, even during the Steam launch, is intact.

There is nothing here for new players anymore, even when the community that's left is still incredibly welcoming. I would love to be proven wrong, but I highly doubt anything could happen.