Recent reviews by BackSun

Pros:
- Play as a dragon
- Good combos, music, and graphics
- There's a free demo so you can try it out

Cons:
- Performance issues, the game stutters quite often (maybe to much is being done on the render thread?)
- A bit buggy (IE sometimes you have to click on a button twice for it to register)
- Inconsistent use of the term "boss", sometimes it refers to you and sometimes to the hero you are fighting
- Not well explained mechanics (IE the green dragon has several different abilities that I had to search the steam community tab to understand)


Other:
- If you 100% the map it will give you the "defeated" screen, it'd be nice to have that screen say something different (and maybe have a quick animation like the other acts).
- the game seems to be designed mainly around the fire dragon, there are some arena's, cards, and mechanics that seem a bit awkward or have clipping issues with the other dragons.

This review is aimed mainly for the developers, so spoilers ahead.



Long story short:
- Gameplay wise and technically this game is a big improvement over SB.
- Story wise while I wasn't as interested in these characters, how the story was told was very well done.

Keep up the good work, I'm just hoping the next game you all do has the SB/Ruin characters return.



Long story long:

Story:
- I appreciated the straightforward A plot. As someone who isn't a massive theorist (I'll watch some of the videos but mostly just nod along with whatever's being discussed) it was nice to have a plot I could easily follow.
- That being said, I wanted to see more of the story/characters from security breach/ruin. As someone who got into FNAF via Security Breach, I felt a little disappointed that almost none of the previous characters were included. That being said, from a larger story standpoint it makes sense (also this helps clear up a lot of things in SB/Ruin) so while I understand I'm still hoping to see more from Gregory, Vanessa, Cassie, and the glamrocks.


Gameplay:
- Game progression is entertaining and fun. The exploration, sneaking, and security leveling was an enjoyable gameplay loop.
- I really didn't like the drag to interact mechanic.
- It felt like it was designed for VR and is very clunky with keyboard and mouse; keyboard controls to snap to each option would feel much crisper, responsive, and polished.
- For interactions that only have one option (IE doors and terminals) it feels unnecessary, why not just use the interact button? For interactions that have multiple options (IE power puzzles, Mr/Mrs helpful selections, and the crane puzzles) handling via mouse is floaty and I often overshoot the option I want, which is frustrating.
- Pumping the generators on a small mouse pad is extremely annoying/difficult since I don't have enough space to move the mouse far enough.
- Having the world/levels loop around is fun and was well done. Having the security office as a “home base” you often came back to worked well and helped ground the world.
- Not blatantly explaining things (Ie there were only 2 pop-ups I can remember) helped with my immersion and helped maintain the gameplay flow, nice job! This was very much improved over Security Breach.
- That being said some puzzles/chase sequences sometimes felt a bit too punishing for not going the exact right path. Specifically the chase sequence Big Top was clunky and I often felt like it was more a puzzle of where the level designer wanted me to stand vs how to outsmart/outmaneuver Big Top.
- Several sneaking areas (ie the administration room) felt like a lot of waiting for the mimic to walk by and/or loose interest in you and not a lot else. It got annoying/boring instead of tense.
- (Side note as I'm writing this review out, have you all tried Alien: Isolation? It seems like that game achieves something very similar to what you're trying to do here with a single invincible monster that's chasing you. If you've already seen it feel free to ignore my ramblings.)
- I missed jumping.
- I'm sure it was done to reduce the chance of getting stuck on stuff or breaking the game bounds, but it felt very limiting vs other first-person games and I still managed to get stuck when climbing on a chair outside Big Top's first appearance.
- I wasn't a fan of Arnold’s random breathing.
- In-universe it makes sense, he's having a rough day. But from a gameplay perspective it wasn't always obvious if something was happening (IE monster nearby or running out of stamina running) or if our dude just randomly decided to start breathing hard.
- The map feels much more like a maze than the pizzaplex with areas feeling less distinct/unique.
- Granted, this may be due to me having played SB a lot more more or due to the central hub design of the atrium allowing easy viewing of where most areas are.



Technical:
- I liked the "invisible" loading screens, they worked very well.
- I have mixed feelings about the fake 3D skyboxes behind windows.
- The idea is great and really helps with performance, but their implementation wasn't amazing and looked very flat which made me feel like I was in a game box, not a building.
- With headphones the 3D spacial audio was much better than in SB. It was easy to determine where the Mimic was just by listening (maybe this is due to enemies teleporting less frequently than SB?) But either way, having the ability to listen and locate enemies was great and made the game much more fun/immersive.
- Performance was perfect, I never had any issues.



Style:
- I wasn't as big a fan of this location as the pizzaplex; but, the design and art direction were on point. The whole thing felt like a HL2 map in the best possible way.
- (Some of the puzzles/gameplay loop also felt like they took inspiration from Portal, which is a massive win in my book.)

An excellent story uniquely told.
Having just completed the game there are two things that stand out to me the most:

- The characters
All of the characters are excellently written; but I specifically loved watching Luka and Rolo interact, they are the perfect example of goofy friends, and they brought a smile to my face whenever they were together.


- The branching story-book format
The story would've been good if it was told in a traditional way, however because it changed the classic multiple-ending-game formula, it became great.

In other games where you have branching paths, you could potentially get to the end on your first try. But, if you wanted to see any of the other endings, you'd have to start over from the beginning. Which, in my experience, can cause a loss of momentum in the story as you are forced to re-cover a lot of old ground. Especially if you just wanted to change one small decision near the end of the game.

Beacon Pines on the other hand brings up a (literal) decision tree that you can jump to any section of at any time. This, combined with the fact that you slowly unlock options and endings as you go, means the story never looses momentum by forcing you to re-tread old ground. In fact, every bad ending only adds to the stakes and makes the true ending all the more satisfying.


This isn't even mentioning the incredible art, music, and narrator voice acting.
Beacon Pines is an excellent game all around.

Contains both an excellent remaster of the original Henry games, along with an amazing ending to the story as a whole.
The humor, story telling, visuals, and audio design are all spot on; PuffballsUnited did an incredible job with this series.

An excellent game.
The core idea is executed perfectly, the music is incredible, the graphics are great, and the story is engaging.

Half Life: Alyx is an incredible experience and game.
As a reference, this is the only game I have ever gotten every achievement in.

* The audio design is amazing. When wearing headphones you will hear little things that really make the world feel alive.
* The detail in the game is astonishing both graphically and physically. If you think you can interact with something, you probably can.
* Those 2 things cause this game to be the most immersive experience I have ever seen.

* The gun play is fun and rewarding of skillful shots.
* Exploration is fun with some incredible views.

If you have a VR headset this game is a must have.
If you don't have a VR headset I would suggest getting one just for this game. I got a Rift S just for this game and it was definitely worth it.

A very helpful tool to untangle yourself, especially since you don't have to guess which direction you need to turn.

Fun but short platformer game

Well done mod.

I can not recommend this game enough, if you would like to know why; this video sums it up pretty well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUDcyKur-Ag