Recent reviews by OctaHeart

Having played the actual full game now after having loved the demo, this is an amazing game. Finding all of the creatures, making meals for them, paired with listening to weird in game radio stations-- it's a really nice vibe. I really enjoy some of the puzzles as well.

The new weapons are great so far. Haven't gone through all the maps yet but the ones I have played feel fun. Not sure about the 4p mode but being able to remain on the 2p mode still works just fine.

I really like the presentation of this game. I really like the quality of life features for the picross solving itself. I love the home building aspect for the rodent. I do _not_ like most of the picrosses themselves though. 99% of the time the thing you're filling in does NOT look like what you're 'building'. It's still an amazing "fill in the squares using the rules of picross" game but for the actual pixel art aspect of picrosses, it falls apart hard.

I ate the world's worst fruit salad (labelled as the world's best fruit salad) which killed me, put my character in the hospital off screen, and stole $200 from my account. Great game.

Edit; Feb-16-2026:
The game has been fixed and reinstated on the store, with mentions of "new content" on the way on the Demoncrawl Discord. This is honestly a bit concerning since I think the biggest issue this game has is the insane amount of items bloating the pool already. It's a weary recommend if you think you're okay with the 1,000+ items, but to most people I'd say no still.

Original Review:

Crashes on startup, even before then the game's been in a downward spiral for a while with a stupid amount of items that just get in your way in an unfun manner. If you're willing to downpatch to a better version through Steam Console shenanigans (since the dev doesn't let you downpatch through beta branches) then yeah sure I guess but I just think the fire's gone at this point.

I'm honestly really excited for the full game because of this demo. The small puzzles to find more recipes paired with the cooking system makes for a really fun, if short demo.

Edit: Yeah no the Hat Kid Update ain't it chief. Game still has NO players, and given the interactions I've had with those in the community included some random dude stalking my account to try and make a point that I don't understand, I don't think it's worth it even if you join the discord for matchmaking.

The basic gameplay is okay but given that it's been in Early Access for two and a half years and we STILL DON'T have
-results screens
-replays
and -proper online that consistently works whether you're on ethernet or not.

It doesn't give me much hope to begin with, but given that we're only now getting our first character past the initially promised roster (with even that initially promised roster taking a while to release post EA Launch) with Hat Kid?

On top of her coming out with paid palettes-- it doesn't really make me hopeful for the game having enough money to make it to release. Especially since the game never goes on sale and the average player count being in the low 20's throughout almost any given month.

How can anyone in their right mind focus on paid cosmetic DLC before even a basic WIP progress of a results screen is in the game? It feels like their focus is in the wrong place for a paid product.

I preface this by saying that OFF is probably my favorite game of all time. The setting alone is something I've rolled around in my head daily as a kid, with its amazing characters and art direction as well.

That being said, this remake? It takes what I love and polishes it in a lot of ways that makes it feel like I'm playing this wonderful game I've completed 13 times now for the first time again. This review will be solely comparing the remake to the original freeware release. It will also have spoilers for the original game in a minor fashion, with major spoilers for new content spoiler marked at the end. If you want the TL;DR: Yes, I think you should buy it. If you're on the fence then play until maybe end of Zone 1 of the freeware version, but know that you can't carry over the save data.

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Original Combat: The updated combat system is probably the biggest selling point of the remake. The original OFF was hard to define as a proper RPG for me given how lacking the difficulty was. Once you unlocked the ability to poison enemies (which is honestly really early), you've effectively won the game right then and there. Paired with winning any fight against a secretary in a purified Zone giving you enough credits to max out your equipment, the original was really easy, especially on repeat playthroughs.

Remake Combat: They've really fleshed out the combat system without making it painfully difficult to play. You can choose your combat speed (with me picking the default "time stops whenever it's your active turn"). Poison now wears out on enemies over time but not in a way that makes it worthless to use, with the Competence list being updated and clarified on what moves do what in a way that's welcome for even veterans to the game like me. I also love how they're handling crits, with a flash appearing and the combat meter of you or the enemy's now in orange and filling up faster, letting you know to use a powerful Competence or guard against an enemy's attack. I feel like some tweaking could be made to where enemies prioritize attack moves though whenever they have a crit, since I've had enemies use Status moves (or nothing in case of Secretary fights) when they have a crit, wasting the powerful move since I don't think crits affect Status moves for the most part.

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Original and Remake Script: I don't have much to say here that feels worthwhile, given I've been playing the game since we only had revision 2 of the fanmade script. I never touched the original game in French since I don't speak French. The Script does feel good, and gets the ending right with Hugo making The Batter and Vader Eloha. Them changing the nb choice to "I'd rather not say" is weird though. I can definitely say that they got the character feelings down right at least, with me not anything that felt odd for a character to say. Judge is wordy beyond belief, Dedan's swearing is around the Revision 3 script, Zacharie will probably flood every single art related space I'm in for the next year-- point is, it's good.

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Original Music: This is going to be a difficult part for me. The original's music is great in almost every fashion, with only one or two duds at most (Stab of Happiness for example). It's a shame that ACC's soundtrack could not be obtained for this release, but mods are already out https://www.reddit.com/r/offthegame/comments/1msk11u/off_classic_music_restoration_mod/ to restore it, as well as some of the replaced SFX. That being said--

Remake Music: It's fine. A lot of it appears to be more ambient compared to the original's active soundtrack. Some of it is amazing and feels like it goes right alongside the original. Others are Flesh Maze Tango's replacement which makes me cry in a bad way. Some songs feel like they're doing their best to be legally distinct from the original like Not Safe and Desperately Safe which isn't... bad? But I'd rather them go for something new and trip rather than keep things too close to the original and make me wish I was just listening to the original OST at times. I will say though, the new battle theme and most area themes are great though, looking at them seperated from the original. I do like the entirely new songs for stuff talked about in the Major Spoilers Section, but they dont't feel like they fit OFF for me. Breakcore in a New Content Section is a weird choice that feels like it doesn't fit OFF thematically.

That being said why the hell did you replace Dedan's talk sound please I need it back I'm begging you.

--Major Spoilers for the remake--

New content: This is one of the second major selling points. Entirely new boss fights! Was it advertised? I don't remember! I just know that I saw the red area where you fight Cob in as part of the initial trailers so I'm going to assume it was advertised. That being said, the new boss fights are fun in a weird way. They definitely feel out of place in some regards. Mostly in regards to their fancy new visual effects when you fight them, with high FPS crab claws and whatever the hell Cob does that kills everyone in a single turn. They look nice, but compared to the rest of the game's vfx being (batter slides at enemy with no easing, then slides away) and (enoch's arms are shifted left and right somewhat slowly) they definitely feel out of place. Given the designs of the enemies overall look like they belong in OFF, but the VFX makes me wonder if I'm just missing some thematic reasoning for things being as weird as they are for the new content. Onto the fights themselves though, they all seem to be "employ something that breaks the rules" and it can be hard to tell what they are at times, such as Herodotus and Psalmanazar's guilty mechanic, or (whatever the hell Carnival is doing with its prizes, I still haven't figured that out.). I'd say that they're good fights for the sake of being fun, but I feel like the proper "meaning" and how it relates to OFF overall is beyond me. Maybe I'll get it on my third or fourth replay of it.

Verdict: Yeah it's pretty good. I'd buy it if I were you.

This is a re-review of the game as it's changed from Splitgate 2. My initial review of Splitgate 2 before it transitioned into Splitgate: Arena Reloaded was negative, for the record. It's been a hot minute since I played Splitgate 1 though so if anything is inaccurate then blame it on either updates over time or my ♥♥♥♥ memory.

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Splitgate: Arena Reloaded is pretty good. It honestly feels like more of Splitgate 1 but more focused. The guns feel good and the portals still work well. Grenades are now on a timer where you get one and then once you throw it you can't throw another for 15 seconds-ish. They bonked jetpack shenanigans pretty hard since you can't regain fuel midair anymore and must touch down first (which I think is a healthier change for the long run despite me being sad as someone who definitely ♥♥♥♥♥♥ with the jetpack in Splitgate 1).

The monetization practices suck still just like they did in Splitgate 1 but f2p games are always like this so eh, whatever.

They're also trying to be... self aware? I guess? Since if you get killed multiple times in a row then finally get a kill yourself you get an award called "We're so back" with the icon being a baseball cap.

My biggest complaint has to be the weapon and perk unlocking system, which WILL screw over those who aren't early adopters, so I hope that changes over time, since I'm playing it a kinda healthy amount and I'm still nowhere close to unlocking even half of the overall weapons yet. If you focus on just the gameplay and nothing else then I'd say it's pretty fun though at the end of the day. Much better than Splitgate 2's initial launch. Maybe marginally better than Splitgate 1? But only time will tell on that front.

I can't possibly describe what makes me love this game without spoiling it in some capacity. Please play it.