Recent reviews by Kobold Commando

I was a little worried this would be "just another Fatshark game" but it feels significantly less "stiff" than the Vermintides and sucked me in and I've been having a blast.

The 40k flavor is fantastic and has rekindled my interest in that franchise. You won't find dull fascistic chest-thumping space marines. It's much more "human", you're a cog in the machine, as is everyone else, and very few of them are operating 100% by the rules, they're just trying to survive while fighting an all-consuming magic demon cult.

The mechanics are great, punishing if you leave the squad but not enough so that you can't clutch or explore. RPG mechanics are there to progress and customize builds but not so much that you feel your character is what's doing the lifting. The AI director is vicious and will cut loose at times. The enemies are mean but have tells and for the most part you can learn to counter them with good play. There are a lot of difficulty settings ranging from "definitely pulling punches" to "how". The guns and melee weapons are satisfying and punchy. The abilities are synergistic and fun. There are tons of dudes to kill who explode into blood and maggots.

There are DLC characters and they're strong, but they don't feel unbalanced, I've never felt like any character is unwelcome. Apart from that the microtransactions are cosmetic, and many cosmetics are also earned in game through in game feats.

The bots are borderline useless, you won't find any solo play (apart from a modded challenge mode). There are a few quirks and oddities, like swapping weapons isn't 100% consistent. A few abilities and weapons don't seem particularly useful. The AI Director cutting loose may be frustrating to some as it can sometimes cut TOO loose and drop 5 crushers 3 ragers 2 bulwards 2 poxbursters a trapper and a flamer right in front of you and say "good luck!"

Do you like roguelikes? Do you like crazy broken mechanically intricate builds like you see in Path of Exile? Do you like a streamlined experience that cuts out the fat and throws you right into the fun part? That's what this game is.

You can hold tab and the game will play itself, but hiding behind that is a ton of mechanical depth as you try to pick characters, builds and equipment that compliment one another and survive to the end. There is technically metaprogression, but it's over with super fast and mostly serves to avoid overwhelming new players with options. And there's a ramping difficulty setting as you complete the game to keep enemies strong and push you to optimize better and better builds.

You can be a warrior so bulky you crush enemies beneath the weight of your armor.
You can be a necromancer who summons so many minions it literally fills the screen.
You can dance just outside the enemy's reach with every step zapping them with lightning.
You can summon minions just to kill them and have their death fuel damaging spells.
You can become a tree and sit around while everything kills itself.
You can stab people from across the map with MIND SWORDS.
You can become a teleporting horror from beyond the stars.
You can be an ape man with nothing more than a sling and a loincloth and still conquer the world.
And so much more!

I could see people calling this short and unchallenging, but I'd rather say it doesn't wear out its welcome, and is stress-free and relaxing.

Apart from that, this game is pure joy. It just makes me happy! The movement feels good, the visuals are great, the writing is funny and charming, and the story is touching. I loved every moment of waddling, climbing and ragdolling around the island killing cardboard and making friends!

I collect many shard. Much fun.

You get to play as a fat tanuki demon who carries his enormous scrotum over his shoulder. 10/10

All you do is WASD around autoattacking. All the enemies do is beeline for you. So why's it so great? Super solid game design.

Flocks of bats start pushing enemies around tripping you up. If you ignore a cluster of tough enemies a ring of plants will start to force you into them. If you pick only high damage random weapons, the fact everything autoattacks may make it impossible to punch through and escape when you're surrounded. Because you take damage extremely fast the stakes are always high.

Add onto that the satisfying upgrade loop, all the upgrades are punchy and feel good and there are tons of unlocks and characters, and you've got a hell of a satisfying game to play.

Look past the bits of crust and weird translation, this is a good'un.

A 10/10 ARPG, has all the things I loved about Diablo 2, and fixes a lot of things I didn't. The setting is delightfully grim, bleak and horrific, yet it never felt to me like it was simply rehashing tired ideas. There are only two characters but you get to pick two classes resulting in a wonderful array of options, and as far as I can tell then worst you'll wind up with is a combo that doesn't quite suit your style, I haven't seen anything that's outright BAD. Respecs are easy, but aren't quite free, which is a great spot to be in. Maps aren't randomly generated, but you'll hardly notice because monster placements are and various spots will be blocked off demanding new routes.

This game has seen continual dev and community support as well which is always a huge positive mark in my book.

The DLCs remind me of the expansions of old, additional stories nearly as long as the main campaign, with lots of new content, I'd recommend all of them as well.

The endgame is as expected, tough dungeons that drop great loot. The "chase loot" is less oppressive than other ARPGs because you get a lot of things that can be crafted or focus-farmed or bought from faction vendors, which is fantastic and helps the experience feel a lot more smooth.

My main complaints simply come from the game not having an infinite budget, which is understandable.

Come for the physics, stay for the wand building and ridiculous amount of content!

Noita is the most "roguelike" rogue-lite game I've played. It's brutal and unforgiving and your progression is almost entirely skill and knowledge. It hits almost all the Berlin pillars nicely except for turn-based and ASCII, and absolutely nails the overall feeling in my opinion. It's a platformer, but slower and more deliberate than you might expect, you'll cautiously explore and engage when you have certainty, rather than charging in and fighting by the seat of your pants. One bad slip-up can mean your life, and even finding "broken" equipment won't change this.

Speaking of broken equipment, if you like those ridiculous exponentially escalating builds that Binding of Isaac is famous for, you'll probably love it here too. The perks and wands can become absurdly strong. But unlike Isaac, the game can be very satisfying with very basic and "low-tier" setups, and you're much more likely to manage to put a really strong build together once you have enough experience, rather than relying on resetting the game a lot. and even when you find a setup that makes you say "that's it, I've won", Noita can find a way to make you pay for your hubris!

The wand-crafting can't be overstated, it uses a type of snap-together logic familiar to Baba is You, and with all the modifiers available it can become horrifyingly complex. There are a lot of intricacies to learn too, like how certain modifiers can cause the wand to fire the next spell far faster if they're arranged just right. Play around with the chainsaws! One of the big skills is learning how to identify good wands and spells and how to put them together to synergize.

The amount of content is hard to overstate as well. You'll start trying to survive each level. Then trying to explore most of each level to get the gear and gold to survive later ones. Then beating the game. and THEN you start learning what you need to find and assemble to turn around and see what else lies around the world. and the world is massive, several times the size of the "game area" and packed with mysterious things to find. and it's all contiguous, certain spells can dig through the most dense rock and let you galavant across reality.

I slept on this game for a long time. It seemed cool but I didn't expect it to really grab me. Turns out it had a hell of a lot more depth and engagement than I expected. It's great and has totally sucked me in.

Unironically more engaging than any schlock I've seen out of Ubisoft or Bethesda for years.

Not sure why this has mixed reviews. The story is short, but the levels are fun and interesting. The real meat of the DLC however lies in the challenge mode. You get sent back through the rest of the game, with the levels suped up and some wicked challenges imposed. Some of them really make you look at the level differently, like not being allowed to jump, while others are just relentlessly brutal, like the boss fights. If you loved the game but found it too easy, this is a great addition!