Recent reviews by LaserRanger

I finished this game in a single 12-hour session. It's utterly engrossing. I couldn't put it down. I loved every minute of it.

If you're coming from Obra Dinn and trying to find something that scratches that same deductive itch, this is the game for you.

Now to go get the rest of the endings...

This game started strong but really fell flat in the finale.

On a blind first-time playthrough, I'll go out on a limb and say that getting the "Good" ending is basically impossible. To get the good ending, you have to understand an alien language, and to understand an alien language you have to piece together words from context clues that you gather from special interactions with NPCs.

That's fine, but it comes with a major problem: Those interactions are set up in a way that they are ENTIRELY OPTIONAL, like a collectible, or something for an achievement. Some of them are decently well hidden and are easily missed by someone simply trying to complete an "any%" campaign. But without the information they give you (and probably a notepad + a few hours of time looking for patterns) it's impossible to finish the game with the best ending.

If you don't know what's coming at the end of the game (which you wouldn't on your first playthrough, unless you spoil the ending for yourself) then you have no idea how important these little ball dudes are, and you brush them off as fun easter eggs.

Because of that, I had to look up the correct color sequence to get the "good" ending, and it's complex enough that it's basically impossible to do accidentally, thus the "good" ending was only achieved by a handful of players. This sucks.

The mechanics were fun and interesting, the puzzles were "eh...", and the world was decently captivating. If this game has one saving grace, it's the art direction - that was good. The ending really soured the experience for me, though.

If you want to play a better Limbo-like with similar themes but with far better execution, go play Planet of Lana.

This is definitely a hidden gem!

The story was compelling and kept me absorbed for my entire first playthrough. I got so hooked I finished the game in a single 6-hour session. I only got one of the endings so I'll be going back to try for the others.

The best way I can describe the gameplay is like if you took the Braindance investigation minigame from Cyberpunk 2077 and made a whole game out of it, it would look something like this! I really enjoyed the more interactive parts of the game, and the "story" segments were interesting enough to keep me engaged.

My only complaint is that I wish the balance of interactive segments to "dialog only cutscene" was tipped more heavily in favor of the interactive... I LOVED the crime scene investigation mechanics, and the parts where you arranged/linked your evidence together to form conclusions, but I DESPERATELY wish there was WAY more of it. I'll also echo others' criticism that there wasn't really any challenge. Even though it bills itself as a detective game, it's more of a visual novel where there's only one linear outcome to arrive at. If they expand this universe in the future, I want to see more meaningful gameplay where you're allowed to make mistakes.

You really only get to "play" the core game for a small handful of segments that I can count on one hand. I wanted to see much more of this.

If the devs are listening: Great job, but I want more! If there's a sequel/DLC in the works, please put more emphasis on the crime scene investigation and evidence board gameplay. Those were far and away the best parts of the experience.

4/5 stars!

A Level 1 Goblin had an unknown status effect. When I killed it with the starter pistol, it's body exploded to reveal a cultist with a machine gun that instantly deleted almost all my health.

10/10

Planet of Lana is a beautiful new entry to the emerging "limbolike" genre. Enjoyable puzzles, compelling story, fantastic soundtrack, and above all else... it's visually breathtaking. It's like playing a painting.

This game is made specifically for people who spent their childhood taking things apart.
I loved every minute of it, and now that I've finished the campaign I'll probably keep going.

Very good game for relaxing and winding down.

i scored +28 over par on one of the holes

10/10 an accurate simulation of real life mini-golf

This is a solid-platinum love story to every Half-Life fan out there. Even if you don't have VR currently, I plead of you, FIND A WAY TO PLAY THIS! This is everything that we have been waiting for AND MORE.

Without spoiling any details, I was completely blown away by every chapter in this game, ESPECIALLY the climax ending. The final chapter is mind bending and surreal, and oh so satisfying in the tools it gives you. Please play this game.

This game has firmly solidified Half Life as my favorite franchise, and Alyx is my favorite entry to said franchise.

This is no doubt, hands down, the coolest VR experience I've had so far. They nailed the atmosphere perfectly.

I would fully support these guys making a full game like this.

Hold off on purchasing this until they fix the audio issues on PC. The Reach campaign is laughably bad because of the audio issues that exist all throughout.

Update: Audio issues are fixed, now the game is great!