Recent reviews by Cobalt

It's a solid game! If you like FtL, XCOM, or ideally both, you'll be really engaged by this. Tight resource management gameplay and prioritising different pathways is a fun gameplay loop.

I will point out - it's not a completely polished experience. There are some minor visual issues, occasional typos, etc. Combat is basic and story interaction is done via visual-novel-style dialogue boxes. The high quality of the art inserts vs the slightly animatronic-looking character models shown make me wonder if it wouldn't have been better to emphasise the former more. I'd also love some more music tracks!

However, the in-engine cutscenes are beautifully rendered (I wish there were more of them!) and there are a fun amount of alternate pathways or outcomes to known story moments. Not everything will go exactly as you expect, even if you stick to canon...

It's full of scuff. You can see every rough edge. It stutters. I don't even know if it's a particularly good rhythm game.

It's beautiful to look at. The voice cast give it their all. The characters are wonderful.

This game sucks. This game is perfect. I don't know if anyone has ever enjoyed making a video game as much as these people LOVED making a video game. You feel it the entire time you're playing.

Please, please play it.

It's a fun idea, but feels more like a game jam project than an actual game; I think it's more or less put its entire thesis in the demo. Still, if the developers have a plan for how to iterate upon the core concept and make it deeper, I'd be interested to see it.

This is one of the "killer apps" for VR for a reason - and don't be put off by the "early access" label. The level of detail, variety of game modes, and sheer developer passion is nothing short of amazing!

The puzzles, characters, and writing are all sublime. My only genuine criticism is that the default character designs are so strong that I didn't want to unlock or use any of the alternate outfits!

The game also makes you feel very, very clever when you have some of those "aha!" moments using skills in ways you didn't think of before, up to and including being able to defeat the final boss in a single turn. I recommend it to just about everyone!

Given this is an immersive sim-style game, I immediately tried the safe in the apartment with you-know-what and was disappointed...but a little more exploring made me smile. I'm glad that particular bit of history is still going over 20 years later!

Game is solid and clearly has a lot of love put into it, I'm excited to see what the full release brings!

It's a playable Star Trek film! If that sounds appealing, particularly if you love the TNG era, then I'd say go for it. It's decently long, there's a nice variety of characters, the story is interesting, and there's some replayability due to the multiple choices, if you want to run through it more than once.

I do have some nitpicks, but none of them are dealbreakers:

• The game does not run particularly well. I'm on a 2070 Super, which should really be sufficient given how the game looks. That said, I didn't experience any crashes, and the worst of it was some pop-in and framerate stuttering.
  
• Most of the captions are incorrect. The spoken dialogue and the text generally convey the same thing or are similar enough for it to not matter, but this might be distracting if you're relying on the text to help you understand what the characters are saying.
  
• The 'mood' system can be a bit hit or miss as to how relevant it is. The game marks it as important that (say) Zarg the Ultimate Destroyer of the Universe was disappointed that you didn't agree with him destroying the universe, which is more amusing than anything.

Ultimately, if you're interested enough to be checking out reviews, you'll most likely enjoy it!

Solid game, makes for quick, fun matches and is very polished for a free release. Ideal for lunch breaks / commutes / watching a YouTube video in the background. Do your homework before playing, though, in two key areas:

• The 'pool' system. At the end of 'pool 2' (after the tutorial and a little ways into the 'main game' - or, exactly when you're invested in the game time-wise) the progression speed is halved and opportunities to get new cards become random chance rather than guaranteed. Entering 'pool 3' is when you're up against players with many more cards than you and are likely to be deploying stronger strategies without the ability to easily get more cards yourself to catch up. Consider staying in 'pool 2' if the game is fun enough as it is.
  
• The way the game tries to screw you / mobile game-gacha-engagement-FOMO stuff. Half the 'progression' rewards are more of the currency used to progress, meaning half the spaces don't actually give you anything besides a minor discount on the next progression, and we all know the risks of 'limited time offer!' and 'exclusive' and battle passes in general. Stay safe and keep track of your mental health because these sorts of live services can really get you if you're not careful. Nothing is so exclusive that you can't live without it.

An excellent recreation of the TNG pin (and the only legitimate way to play it for new players since Pinball Arcade lost the Williams license years ago).

It's a great table with a strong theme, and while none of its features or modes are particularly complex they're all fun to play. One of its key traits is its punishing shots - a lot of the time a missed/bricked shot results in a very difficult-to-save drain. This is up to and including the plunge sometimes resulting in a left-outlane drain if it's sent to the bumpers (even if it usually gets ball saved). This means you have to swallow your pride a bit and accept that some rounds are going to be 20 seconds long, but it's very rewarding to start to get a feel for how to keep control of the ball. Use of the nudge feature is a must. I also recommend turning up the gamma a couple of notches as the table can be a bit dark.

I must admit the Zen-added Enterprise toy feels a little lifeless as it's completely static, despite otherwise being quite pretty. I suppose it's better that than it be distracting, though, and the other additions are all subtle enough to not impact the play experience but cute enough to be enjoyable.

Anyway, if you're looking at this you probably already know if you want it or not, but I recommend it anyway!

It's got amazing visual and audio design! ...but I really do think Pinball Arcade is by far the better game due to its (to my mind) significantly better physics.

Sadly, with that game no longer having the Williams license (seemingly for good), this remains the only way to play several classic tables - though nowhere near the variety that Pinball Arcade had. There are some extremely glaring absences - seriously, you get the Williams license and don't make Addams Family?!

The original tables have a couple of highlights (Sorcerer's Lair, Starfighter Assault) but I've otherwise found them pretty uninspiring.