Recent reviews by A Spooky Wraith

EDIT: As of 3/4/2026, 100%'d the game. Absolutely worth every cent. Get it.
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The quality of life and the smooth and clean movement and gameplay in this is second to none. It plays so well, you would be doing yourself a disservice to skip on it if you like 3D platformers.

The colors and artstyle really pop, and the music is such a groove and vibe. You play as the character Beebz, with her gang of goobers to find out why you've been invited to this kingdom. You'll be double jumping, dashing, gliding, wall running, and so many other ways to navigate the various islands littered with platforming courses and challenges.

You can customize and tailor mechanics to your interests and even make the game easier or harder for yourself via unlockable mechanics and upgrades.

Dialogue (while slightly cringe at times, [and I believe that was very much intentional]) has still gotten laughs out of me, and it's generally fun and quirky. Characters are bursting with personality, and I certainly hope I can see more of these characters in the future.

I cannot stress enough though, this feels GREAT to play. Pick it up. Tell your friends. There's so many accessibility and quality of life options that even if you think it might be too tough, you can very easily tweak it to your forte.

"What's this thing?"
*Reads the words, "Abiotic Factor"*
"Oh okay."
*Doesn't read further, buys immediately.*

So far I'm about four hours in, and I quite honestly don't think the game deserves the flack it's been getting. But naming the game "Bloodlines 2" was definitely part of the problem. This is not a Bloodlines successor. It really isn't the same experience. But is it a bad experience? Absolutely not. The combat's a bit jank, here and there, and somewhat goofy, at times. But it is fun. It fulfills the elder vampire fantasy that you will be living. But where the game really shines is the writing, the voice acting, and the visuals. The majority of the game will be navigating conversations, talking to characters, and making decisions. And while I'm not far enough to know whether these decisions matter or not, I am rather engaged by the conversations, and the story itself. It's intriguing, and it does have me continuing to play because I want to know what happens next. It's a perfectly serviceable World of Darkness game, and I'd say much better than most we've gotten in recent years. However, if you were expecting a literal Bloodlines 2, I would say this game is not for you. This is more of an RPG-lite experience. BUT, if you like the World of Darkness universe, I do urge you to give it a shot. Story's good thus far. Characters are very well developed and have depth. I expect the combat to get a little repetitive in the future, but as of current, it's pretty fun to me.

Review is subject to change in the future, pretty heavily contingent on the coherency and strength of the story overall.

If this is just a taste of what's to come with the full release, oh man is this game going to be absolute FIRE. I am so glad I gave the demo a shot to see what the new "Demon Turf" entry would be, and this is so much more smooth, slick, and so GOOD feeling than the older ones. (Not that the older ones were bad, they were quite good) But there is something just so CLEAN feeling about this one. Once you lock in and got the moves down, it feels so rewarding and amazing. I cannot wait for release. It's been an absolute delight and a treat to actually get to try out the thing I've had my wishlist for.... about a year now? This game's gonna SLAP so hard when it comes out, mark my words.

Are you looking for a John Wick simulator? Stop. You found it. It's right here.

While it may look just a *little bit* rough around the edges at times, lemme tell you, this is probably the best John Wick simulator to date. Because what it does REALLY, REALLY, WELL? The mechanics. John Wick is a series of visceral of shoot guy movies and have sick choreographed fight scenes. Videogames, in my opinion, struggle to really sell that energy to people, because they give you a gun, and ammo for it, put you in a suit, and assume that's enough.

That's where they're wrong, and this developer gets it SO right, and SO tight. Suit for Hire has mechanics STRUCTURED and BUILT to force you to maintain ammo economy by not just shooting, but taking bad guys out with your hand-to-hand skills, while also looking absolutely cool doing it. There's slow motion, there's parries, there's dodging and sidestepping, and more. It may sound slightly complex, but once the flow state hits, you're kicking dudes into walls, ducking and punching oncoming guys trying to kill you, and suplexing guys into the concrete just in time to reload and squeeze off a magazine of rounds down range to stop the immediate threats, one bullet each. It's visceral, it feels good, it's tight, trust me, it's good. It makes you feel like a true action hero.

It also has varying levels of difficulty. If you think the "take one bullet" bulletproof armor mechanics are a little too lenient, you can choose a different difficulty to make it feel a bit more like Hotline Miami, adjusting how many hits you can take before you go down. At toughest, one shot will bring you down, so you have to just be that much more efficient, fast, and accurate. It's got good beats, it's got good level setups, and it will push you to use every tool at your disposal to clear rooms full of bad guys. Nevermind that there's also unlockable outfits and weapons to customize your own action hero!

Get it.

"Do you like hurting people?"

*Hydrogen by M.O.O.N. starts playing*

(UPDATE as of 5/6/2024)
Appreciate you listening, Sony.

WE DIVE TOGETHER, OR NOT AT ALL.

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Helldivers 2 is a baller game that makes you live in a hyper-violent and (mostly) Starship Troopers-inspired universe as a Helldiver, one of Super Earth's most elite (and comically flimsy) soldiers to walk the galaxy. It has a special ability to really make you feel like you're in a cinematic Hollywood movie, explosions going off constantly, gunfire screaming through the air, Helldivers screaming at the top of their lungs "FOR DEMOCRACY", fire blazing, bugs exploding in violent gore and robots exploding into scrap metal. I cannot recommend the game enough, it is a complete and utter nightmare of chaos, friendly fire accidents, and satirical humor about an Authoritarian government flinging as many soldiers at the problem as there are patriots to serve and die for Super Earth.

10/10.
Hilarious.
Chaotic.
Hyper-Violent.
Get it.

https://www.stopkillinggames.com/

"The game feels too slow" - beta testers

As someone who also beta tested, turn your FOV up to 90 or 100. You're welcome.

The beta's FOV was set to 100 by default. It's down to 70 by default in full release. That's why it feels slow.

However, criticism regarding class balance is valid, please do give feedback about it! Despite that - This game is absolute fire, and very fun, it just needs some backend tweaks to the numbers for better balancing. Give it a shot. It's free. There's literally no downside to trying this game. It's unique, and very refreshing to see in today's landfills of battle royales and extraction shooters. Other people have described this game far better than I will. 3v3v3 or 3v3v3v3 king of the hill matches with insane environment destruction, respawns, and fun parkour esque running and mobility.

UPDATE (5/16/2024):
So I had to REDO this entire review now, because the terms have changed. Now, a lot of the negative reviews right now have a lot to do with people not fully understanding the context of what happened.

So months prior, Wayfinder was an MMO-lite kind of experience, though it has always been advertised as an RPG with online features, really. In fact they made it a point to never call it an MMO, because they didn't see it that way. That didn't stop people from drawing conclusions, but that's besides the point. DE (Digital Extremes) the publisher at the time, was to provide the online infrastructure and servers for Wayfinder to run on. They also put it forward with all sorts of microtransactions, founder's packs for quite a lot of extra money, and battlepasses and the like.

Then DE dropped their entire publishing arm, not only running away with the money from the founder's packs, but also leaving Airship Syndicate (AS) the developers of Wayfinder high and dry and to figure out what to do with Wayfinder on their own. They have clarified they had *several* attempts at getting a new publisher to help keep this product the way it was, but unfortunately, that's not what the industry was open to right now. So as a result, AS was left with a choice. Either try to take everything they'd made so far and make it into a playable game for people to keep, or drop Wayfinder entirely and let it die, because they did not have the support they needed to do so.

So, as a result, Wayfinder Echoes is the new path going forward. A Singleplayer/Co-Op experience that allows you to play Wayfinder very similarly to the way it did before, a lot of overhauled systems removing the online requirement, axing ALL microtransactions, no more battlepasses, you pay for the game, you get everything in one tight-knit package. Founders STILL GET the items they paid for, it's just not on a fully online game. Obviously some people are upset by that, but in today's industry, where Live Service games are prevalent, CONSTANTLY pushed to the forefront for our attention and then inevitably dying, this is, in my opinion, good news.

It means I can play this game with my friends whenever I want, in a world I think is really cool and the gameplay is fun, never feel pressured to constantly get on, and know that this game will not, in fact, one day, die. I can play it forever. As long as there is a machine capable of running it. It is PERFECTLY FAIR for some people to be upset. They are not getting the MMO-lite they were looking for, they are instead getting a similar experience, but as a Singleplayer/Online Co-Op game, and that is not what they paid for. But I would rather -THIS- alternative than the game dying outright, and we never again get a chance to play in the world of Wayfinder.

I like this game. It's fun.
I'm very glad Airship put in the insane amount of effort and work (AND RISK?) to still give us a game we paid for, in an industry that would have absolutely and otherwise screwed the customer over, and given them nothing.

Thank You, AS.
I appreciate you.