Recent reviews by Of Rivals

Imagine Doom's setting, weapons, and bad guys. Now make it rogue-like, top-down, and turn based. Incredibly addictive and one of the very few rogue-like games that truly understand what the genre is about: death can come for you at any instant, even when you're having a good run. You have to adapt your tactics and builds based on what items, weapons, and levels you encounter.

10/10, an online friend highly recommended me this and I would easily recommend Jupiter Hell to any gamer that loves Doom, turn based, and doesn't mind the thrill of overcoming deadly challenges.

Girls' Frontline 2 has just reached its first anniversary for the global server (on Dec 2025). With one year of content released, now is a good time to update my review. TL;DR: I still love the game and story, but the gameplay might not be everyone's cup of tea due to its gacha nature and oversimplified XCOM mechanics.

The devs have stated in interviews that they were heavily inspired by Firaxis's XCOM series. However, this is somewhat misleading because the endgame content of GFL2 is all about min-maxing and pushing the stats of your dolls — the higher stats you have, the more damage you will dish out, allowing your team to easily overpower and annihilate certain enemies (including bosses). Also, some Dolls like Klukai (and a future character named Voymastina) are so broken that they completely invalidate the difficulty of most maps.

To be fair, Mica is listening to feedback and they've recently added optional "Heroic" and "Frenzy" modes that dramatically ramps up the difficulty. Frenzy mode in particular, comes with a fully customisable set of challenge toggles. If you truly want to test yourself and replicate the Legendary difficulty of XCOM 2: WotC where enemies can easily one-shot your dolls, go ahead. Just be aware that without certain meta dolls and team compositions (eg. V1+ Springfield and V2+ Tololo with expansion key), it can become literally impossible to clear some of the higher Frenzy levels.

The prologue and opening chapters are fantastic, setting the dark and mature tone that the GFL series is renowned for. However, as many reviewers have pointed out, by the time your Dolls have leveled up, the missions can become too easy due to the inflated stats of your squad versus the enemy. This creates some ludo-narrative dissonance in the story — like when a deadly enemy boss that has been pursuing your squad the entire campaign gets defeated within 2 turns.

Each brand new doll that gets released is accompanied by their own character event. The problem is that some events are pure filler and take place outside of the timeline of the main narrative, which completely ruins the pacing of the campaign. Eg. Yoohee's story event has absolutely nothing to do with the Commander; Springfield & Peri have a duo-event that is treated as a major story event BUT the majority of it takes place within a simulation; Klukai has one of the best events that ties into the campaign, but her sister Belka's is painfully shallow and short.

GFL2 has a great story somewhere led by an interesting cast… you just need to wait for the right character to come along to advance the plot.

If you are that type of gamer (nothing inherently wrong with that mindset), GFL2 has some of the best 3D character models for a gacha game that are incredibly detailed and well-animated. Some, such as Florence's notorious "pole dancing" animation, were motion-captured from a real-life performer. The recent Crew Deck update allows your in-game Commander avatar to explore and interact with your Dolls, play minigames, and just hang around. It's a surprisingly fun feature that adds a touch of immersion: log-in to clear your dailies, and pass the time by chilling and relaxing with your crew.

Most of the game's… naughtier and sexier skins are purchased with real-money from the cosmetics shops, with one exception. As of Dec 2025, Klukai's swimsuit skin is the only costume that CANNOT be directly purchased, you have to roll for it in a skin gacha. Which brings us to a major point of contention about GFL2 that I would like to address.

You might have seen the negative discourse on social media and Reddit about a certain GFL2 character's "US$200 swimsuit skin." Allow me to correct some factual errors:

1. The skin does NOT cost US$200, this is a gross exaggeration. At MOST, you'll only need to spend US$100, and this is assuming that you're unlucky and need to hit the guaranteed pity of 100 outfit pulls.

2. If you log in now from Dec 2025 to Jan 2026, you are awarded 35 free outfit pulls just by clearing quests and completing daily tasks. To make up the remaining 65 pulls to hit the 100 pity, you can purchase (20) Outfit pulls from the in-game shop for US$25.99 (discounted from its original price of US$35.99). Do the math yourself — even without the discount it's nowhere near 200 bucks.

Is this a greedy cash grab from the developers? Absolutely, yes.

Is it a deal-breaker? No. The skin gacha actually benefits F2P players because everyone now has a chance of obtaining the skin (for free), you just need to be patient and diligently finish all quests and rewards for the next 11 months to obtain all of the free currency for rolling the outfit gacha.

Unless you are a BIG Klukai fan and absolutely MUST obtain her swimsuit immediately, then go ahead and spend money. It's a purely cosmetic skin that does not affect gameplay. I am not here to judge how others choose to spend their cash, I just hate seeing misinformation and totally pointless rage-bait being spread online — over a skin that can be obtained for free with some luck and patience.

GFL2 is a great, but inconsistent gacha game that appeals to different playstyles. You can treat it as a waifu-collection simulator game, and then actually hang out with your waifus. You can enjoy the in-depth world-building and character stories of the visual novel campaign and story events. Hardcore gamers looking for a challenge can try to max Frenzy the endgame content, or aim for a top score in your platoon.

For newcomers, I recommend giving it a try and playing at your own pace. Don't feel obligated to log-in every day if you feel burned out — take a break and come back if you have to.

Play the main story, enjoy the great character models and music, and stop comparing GFL2 to XCOM. Just (re)play XCOM 2: WotC if you want a more traditional turn-based tactical experience.

Chimera Squad is what you get when Firaxis takes XCOM 2: WotC and mixes it with a dose of Jagged Alliance. You are no longer in control of a squad of generic soldiers, but a group of characters with personalities and backstories. They will banter with each other in between missions, revealing interesting bits about themselves and the world-building following the events of WotC. It's not as comprehensive and in-depth as Fire Emblem's support system, but injects some much needed flavour into the XCOM series.

The biggest change on the battlefield is the new initiative system — individual units must take their actions based on the initiative order. If you've ever played a tabletop RPG like Pathfinder or the Persona games, you'll feel right at home. Encounters now play out like you're solving a puzzle — figuring out the right order to use your abilities, and how to disrupt or outright deny enemies from taking their turns. Hit rates still exist, but the RNG feels a lot less punishing. Bad luck is still salvageable, you just need to plan ahead and use the initiative order to your advantage.

Overall, I would highly recommend Chimera Squad to any XCOM fan who doesn't mind the change of pace and tone. It's a scaled-down and more focused experience that rewards players who truly enjoy tactical games and thinking ahead.

XCOM 2 with War of the Chosen is the best way to play the sequel to Firaxis XCOM 2012. WotC adds so much content that it feels like a full-fledged XCOM 2.5 expansion instead of a simple DLC pack — there are new enemies, new bosses, new equipment, and a greater variety of objectives to pursue in the strategic layer. The new faction-classes and SPARK units offers you more tactical choices, allowing you to carve your own playstyle on the battlefield.

XCOM2 + WotC also has full Steam Workshop support, and the modding community is still thriving (as of early-2025 when I'm typing this). I highly recommend the Second Wave Remastered mods (search for "SWR") by Mertius, as it randomises the starting stats and growth rates of your roster, making each of them truly unique instead of another generic soldier class.

This is what a turn-based tactical game should be, and I truly commend Firaxis for making the vanilla XCOM2 experience even better. Now please give us a sequel-remake to Terror From the Deep.

Just like Half-life 1, Half-life 2 has received some quality-of-life updates for its 20th anniversary. The most important update is proper support for widescreen resolutions with UI scaling — the game's fonts and menus will now automatically scale in size based on your window resolution. There are other welcome additions, such as borderless-fullscreen window support with an option to mute the game's audio when switching to another window.

A timeless FPS sequel has finally been updated to run flawlessly on modern systems with zero hassles. Thank you, Valve.

A fantastic introduction to Pathfinder 2E's (PF2E) combat system. You learn the fundamental basics of how to think tactically in PF2E: the Fighter's positioning is paramount as he is able to control the battlefield with his attacks of opportunity while simultaneously setting up the Rogue for flanking and sneak attacks. The Cleric's positioning is also important to set up Bless and Heal spells.

I play and GM a lot of tabletop Pathfinder 1E/2E and I absolutely love what the developers have accomplished: a snappy, fun, and lighthearted taster of a superior RPG system. Paizo would be proud.

A run-and-gun shooter inspired by Metal Slug... without understanding what made the Metal Slug games timeless and fun to play. Your default pistol has infinite ammo, and Jones can knife enemies if they get close enough. Weapon power-ups are placed generously throughout the map — the Machine Gun has a high rate of fire and can perform diagonal shots (again, exactly like Metal Slug), while the Flamethrower does the same, but with more ammo and higher damage.

So what is wrong with NWO Wars? Every time you fire a shot, the screen starts to shake. It's very jarring and eventually gave me a headache, since you are constantly shooting non-stop at hordes of enemies. Some bad guys are inconsistently designed and seem to serve no purpose — the flying bats and zombie cats don't do anything when they touch you.

Levels are very basic with no variation as you reach the final stages. There IS a cool sequence in stage 4 where you start the level fighting on an Info Wars truck, shooting at enemy vehicles. However this ends too quickly and feels like a wasted opportunity. Why not have Jones jumping from vehicle to vehicle as the stage progresses? Or introduce a turret-mounted weapon, like a rocket launcher, to blow up enemy tanks and drones?

With no difficulty levels or branching paths, or any incentive to replay the campaign (the high score table is very barebones and basic), I cannot recommend this game at all. Especially when there are so many other side scrollers available. Go replay the original Arcade Archives Metal Slug series on Switch/PS4 for an authentic arcade experience. Or Konami's recent Contra re-releases. Or wait for Black Finger Jet (from the original creators of Metal Slug) to be released.

Note: As of Apr 2024, Death Must Die is still in Early Access and features only two 20-minute stages, Act I and Act II. Also, a controller is highly recommended.

I rarely purchase Early Access titles, but I decided to give Death Must Die a shot after watching a friend stream it. Despite still being in Early Access, the game is already leagues above all of its peers from the Vampire Survivors genre. Probably the most unique feature about Death Must Die is the Dash mechanic: your character doesn't take damage if enemies touch you, but instead your foes must actually land their attack animations or strike you with a projectile. This makes combat exciting and keeps the player engaged at all times — you are constantly Dashing to avoid enemy attacks.

Fantastic soundtrack; great animations and sprite work; interesting characters and setting that were clearly inspired by Hades; a loot system that is reminiscent of action RPGs like Diablo — you can completely change your character's playstyle if you have the right set of (unique) items equipped.

This is gaming in its most purest form of snappy fun — straightforward, addictive, and you are encouraged to experiment with different tactics and builds. I am eagerly waiting to see where the developers will take this game with future patches.

Serious Sam Fusion 2017 is the best way to experience The First Encounter HD, The Second Encounter HD, and Serious Sam 3 in a single package under the same engine. Running the first two HD games under the SS3.5 engine feels like you're playing a re-remake thanks to the updated engine and textures, plus proper upscaled UI support for modern high resolution monitors.

Be sure to check out the Steam Workshop mods for SS Fusion. I highly recommend A Seriously Stupid HD Remaster (ASSHDR) as it adds the chainsaw from Second Encounter to the First Encounter campaign, and reworks the lighting and visuals of some maps to be in line with the original non-HD games.

The 25th anniversary update for Half-life 1 comes with one very crucial improvement by Valve: proper widescreen support and UI scaling that increases the size of the game menus and HUD to match your higher resolution. This makes the game fully playable on modern 4K monitors with zero inconveniences. Note that this engine update also applies to the Opposing Force and Blue Shift expansions.

A timeless FPS that has been updated for modern hardware. Thank you Valve, now how about an update for HL2 next?