Recent reviews by Geight

Basically it's three bucks for some shaders that can only be enabled in photo mode, which isn't a compelling value proposition but I've enjoyed enough time with ISLANDERS that I went ahead and bought this alongside New Shores just to give 'em some walking around money. If you feel the same way, or have a pressing need to add a sepia or watercolor effect to your New Shores screenshots, you can also give them three dollars!

I do think the ASCII shader is pretty novel, also.

A lotta people are gonna say "if you liked the first one, you'll like the second one", but I'm here to tell you if you like any deckbuilder roguelike you should really pick up Monster Train 2. As a sequel I would compare it to Left 4 Dead 2 in terms of how thoroughly it eclipses the original game and refines the gameplay from a solid entry into something that is a must-play.

The new factions all feel fun to play immediately and only get better as you acquire more cards, the new additions to the rules like the deploy phase and equipment/room cards are savvy solutions to previous limitations, and the addition of an undo button is honestly super-welcome and something I hope becomes more common in the genre.

As of The Big Update I can really recommend this game to folks, with the previous iteration I would play one or two rounds and then be good for a few days, but the addition of the titular Underlords and all the additional/reworked mechanics have made this game into something I'm playing on a near-daily basis now. The duos mode is also a lot of fun if you're looking to add an element of communication and coordination to the game, and with a little rebalancing of damage/health values I could see it becoming the go-to competitive format for the game. There's no guarantee that a given person will like the autochess gameplay or not without trying it first, but this is definitely the best one to try now.

On its initial release Snakeybus was a novel concept with a somewhat unpolished execution, but a rigorous and well-communicated update schedule has sanded down the rough edges of the experience and resulted in a really fun little arcade game. The combination of a soft aesthetic and the soundtrack being "Lo-Fi Beats To Drive Buses To" keeps the experience chill and relaxing despite how ridiculous the game gets once your bus starts reaching serious length. Formerly unintuitive menus and boosting mechanics have both been simplified, and the progression system by which new buses and levels are unlocked has been reworked to be more performance-driven rather than forcing the player to start a level from the main menu a given number of times. I'll admit I totally bought this for the novelty, but it's been a pleasant surprise to see how much it's improved and expanded on so quickly.

It's really relaxing and enjoyable to put down buildings for awhile. You can get by just by dropping stuff on the fly but a little bit of forethought will really help with the big Temples & Plateaus later on. The water levels where you have to also place stuff to place buildings on are really cool.

I don't think I've played a single game that Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass is inspired by, but I quite like it all the same. It's a classic JRPG in the "top-down, random encounters, party members switching in n' out" kind of sense, but you'll always have the constant of the titular Jimmy, who is a variable character whose strengths are dictated by the playstyle and decisions of the player. In the beginning your options can feel a little limited due to the small party size and scant forms available to imagine Jimmy as, but as the game progresses your options start to really open up and there's a satisfying feeling of advancement throughout the journey.

The game wields tone in an almost haphazard sort of way, staying true to its promise of a "story for adults told through the lens of a child." It flips between whimsical and horrifying at near-breakneck speeds, yet somehow manages to stay cohesive and earnest about itself. A game that makes me both laugh and cry at different points is pretty rare, but I would say rarer still is a game that keeps me invested in its quirky characters after 50 hours of gameplay.

There's more praise I could pile on the game by mentioning the excellent soundtrack, the sheer amount of -stuff- there is to in the game still surprises me, and how even weeks after finishing it I'll think of a certain sunglasses-wearing goofball and grin. But I could just gush about this game for hours, so all I'll add on is that you should definitely give it a chance, because it deserves a wider audience.

Folks have been doing FPSes with roguelike elements for years, but STRAFE is the first one to put the emphasis on being fun to play, without weighing down the action with skill trees or other such spreadsheet tedium. The dedication to the 96 aeshetic isn't just solely for marketing, a lot of effort was put into making the movement and gunplay feel viscerally satisfying, as it is in many classic FPS games. The guns are all meaty and loud, and it's even possible to get some good speed going with simple bunny hopping and strafejumping techniques that will be familiar to any Quake player.

Above all, the highest praise I can give STRAFE is that it's entirely beatable on your first attempt so long as you keep your wits about and your finger on the trigger. So many modern roguelikes are best played with their corresponding wiki open in an adjacent window, it's refreshing to see one where the best approach is violent trial and bloody error. There is certainly a learning curve to the game, but the included tutorial provides you all the information necessary to survive.

I do have some qualms about the back half of the experience, namely that the challenge seems a bit too front-loaded, but I suspect this is something that will be addressed in a later patch. The first patch has already cleared up the major bugs and also made a change I'm extremely pleased with by way of reducing the fall damage. All in all, STRAFE is the first fps/roguelike to put good FPS mechanics first, and for that I highly recommend it.

This is the most fun I've had taking the GOAT since Fallout 3!

Heck of fun.

Was your favorite part in L4D huddling in a corner and clicking repeatedly while swarms of mud-colored enemies streamed from the mud-colored walls and sprayed mud-colored particle effects all over your screen? Did you feel like the one thing missing from the experience was a carrot to dangle in front of you in the form of bars being filled up and items with colored text names? If you answered yes to both of these questions, Vermintide is an excellent purchase. Otherwise, buy it if all your friends have because you're not getting them back for a month or two.