Recent reviews by FumblesOfDisgamer

This game is brilliant. Is it difficult? Yes. Does it sometimes feel like it doesn't like me? Yes. Does it feel like Red Hook Studios doesn't like me? Yes. But even though it's a game with a cruel streak a mile wide, its multilayered strategy, easy-to-pick-up combat, and brilliant presentation go a long way in making up for it.

3 hours in, and this game is like smashing your head against a brick wall in the hopes of making a doorway. It's beautiful, perhaps a bit too visually busy, but there's little to complain about in the looks department.

The trouble starts in how heavily it leans into the roguelite elements. That's the brick wall part. Every battle after the first feeble tutorial level is a potential squad wipe. This leads us to the lack of a decent tutorial or anything remotely resembling a progression into the gameplay. And the learning curve? It's not like being thrown into the deep end of the pool to learn to swim—it's being shoved off a cliff.

I will revisit this review in a couple of weeks when I've forgotten how frustrated I feel right now.

A lazy and somehow slightly offensive entry in an otherwise decent series.

Heads up: While overstuffed with brilliance for all, this review focuses on the challenges of specific physical disabilities.

First of all, not only does this trash game have no keybinding or disability options, which should make it a borderline hate crime, but it has the laziest gameplay design I've seen in years. I enjoyed the first game. I thought, though flawed, that it was a decent indie game heading in the right direction. And this entry starts by continuing the deep lore-filled story with returning characters from your playthrough (sort of). Very cool. But then goes on to ignore all of the issues from the first game. Not only that, it manages to compound them.

The battle system (when it is rarely seen) is Xcom on quaaludes. Training is a matter of resetting until you RNG your way to the exact scenario you need to succeed. Choices are often useless, except in that 10 seconds of choice, you are rewarded more richly than you are in a 45-minute battle. Many of the game's systems are not explained or make no sense. How is aggro a positive and less aggro a negative? What is a "Talent?" Oh, the horn does something?

It's as if the developers decided they could get away with doing less by using the excuse that all the answers are in the first game. That's nonsense. Is this sold as DLC? No. If you make us pay full price, you add everything we need to play your game.

I'm disappointed. And yes, of course I'm going to play Banner Saga 3.

Heads up: While overstuffed with brilliance for all, this review focuses on the challenges of specific physical disabilities.

If micro-management of buildings and slowly shooting a weak laser at even slower moving objects is your thing, this is the game for you.

It took me about 15 minutes to blindly make my way through the first 6 levels and another 10 minutes of absolute despair as I struggled hopelessly with the 2 incomplete and possibly impossible "bonus stages."

Did I gain an understanding of what to do? Vaguely. Did it sound like something I wanted to do for a couple hours? Not even at all.

Here's the breakdown.

First, I'm not sure how I would have fared had I been perfectly healthy; as an individual with hand issues, it was nearly impossible to play without the use of some outside software (X-Mouse).

Second, I'll grant you this is a free game; however, it is a bad free game. To begin with, there are no rebindable controls which is a big time no-no. No mouse controls. No colorblind controls. Very little in the way of a tutorial. Nothing resembling a help screen.

Are you starting to see why it's free?

Hey, this could be a student project; who knows? You know what, I don't care. I don't care enough to find out what the budget or timeline of production was here. I only wanted to sit down to a simple tower defense game and relax for an hour before work. But instead, I ended up here writing this review.

Ultimately it's this, charge me a single $ and make something finished and playable, please.

The devs have done a great job of taking this little classically styled game and making it something different by consistently adding more and more clever content to it. Who knows what it'll be like in a year? Or even next week?

Play vanilla. For the love of god, don't get involved with Long War or custom modes or any sort of public dev invented playthroughs. The game itself is as satisfying and true to the OG Xcom as we've ever seen. Enjoy it.

This game is like meeting up with a distant cousin you never realized had beef with you. And now that you know, you will never shake it. The gameplay is honestly fantastic. Puzzle, rogue-like battles. And some weird twists. However, it is beyond difficult. I haven't finished, but I can tell there is a replayable order to events that will make it so much easier.

Mullins is a hell of a game developer. His games are magic. I'm not sure this one fits his pattern of weirdness above mechanics. But I appreciate the skill behind this game.

I feel like this is more of a proof of concept than an actual fully realized XCOM game. A lot of mechanics are abandoned in favor of a simpler and faster narrative.

Where it shines is in the new combat system. The smaller stages lead to faster (and deadlier) gunfights, and never having to go on a bug hunt for some missing alien is great. The characters are interesting but may be a hard sell to longtime players used to customization to the nth degree.

In all, Chimera Squad is an interesting departure, and I look forward to the hybrid of the two different gameplay mechanics we will most likely see in the next installment.

I'm not far in but if you like narrative driven games this is one to get.

This game works for me by sparking my sense of wonder. I'm only on my second planet, but the potential for discovery and different types of gam8e play have me intrigued.
On the down side, it does render very slowly, the flying doesn't feel quite as responsive as I would like, and the resource management is a bit stilted and frustrating.
If you are looking for a slow-burn game with days and days of beautiful scenery and casual yet intriguing gameplay, No Man's Sky should be on your list.