Recent reviews by Jade

GOTY 2023. Most epic penguins. And they dance.

This is part story-rpg and part strategy-sim. The premise is mostly that of that of the show, The Ozarks. You were once an unassuming, regular accountant who accidentally found themselves working as a money launderer for "The Cartel." The mechanics of play are simple enough: recruit businesses to wash money, keep them happy and in line so they wash money faster. There are several things that make it more interesting than simple supply chains. Your friends, family, and agents for hire have different skills that affect their influences on a business' status. Your crew also gains RNG traits as you level their attributes that further affect their influence or even affect how much money they pick up on collection runs. I most enjoyed RP-ing the characters and building out their skills based on how the RNG traits changed them.

The grind of crime-life is broken up by many surprising and engaging story points. I became very invested in my crew and their lives. The game has many decision points in your interactions with your crew and various NPCs that I am VERY curious how I can change things in an alternate playthrough.

I have a few nitpicks where I feel that certain aspects of the UI are not explained as well as they should be, so I'm not entirely certain I'm getting the most out of my enforcers/crew-mates, but so far, I'm not so worried or adversely affected in my playthrough.

Farlanders is an interesting base builder that is told episodically through very surprising chapters with clever characters that slowly unfold a mystery. There is more to your job on Mars than meets the eye. If you're looking at this game to freely terraform the Red Planet, slow down. The game is completed through turns, and you only receive a limited and random assortment of terraforming cards every few turns. This can make it challenging to meet the scenario goals depending on where you placed your starting base (which cannot be moved). Honestly, I'm now more into this game for the story that is told between scenarios than I am here for the base building. Each scenario has a limited number of turns in which to complete the mission for maximum rewards. Now that I think about it, it's a bit like Anno, on a smaller, limited pixel scale. We'll see if we build any thriving Martian cities of industry in the mid or late game, but right now, this game is simply a light-hearted visual novel disguised as a city builder. 7/10

Dwarven Skykeep is a unique basebuilding rpg that blends deck building mechanics with tower defense gameplay. Defend your wizard tower, hire dwarves to mine for precious story minerals and build your tower as high or as deep as you want. This is a funny little adventure game played in chapters that reveal a bigger story.

Void Eclipse is a turn-based card battler in a sci-fi setting. It has some light grand strategy elements that are mostly centered around acquiring resources to buy cards and abilities. 4x this is not, but it adds a unique dimension to an otherwise standard tactical card game.

A deep sRPG that actually has an interesting story and mechanics. I love the card battle system as a shake-up from traditional tactics games.

The base game was already very interesting with a large world to explore and tell your own Exiled story. The recent (free) content updates related to "Chapter 2 - The Age of Sorcery" are very interesting and a great way for this sandbox survival game to continue to evolve. I'm so glad I was talked into this game a couple of years ago and never looked back. It's (almost) perfect. Some of the mods make it a bit laggy or glitchy (falling through floors, or drifiting while standing still), but the vanilla game itself is so strong and made such great improvements after a tough launch.

I received this game as part of a preview on behalf of the Indie Game Collective. I love a good tactics game and love roguelikes-lites even more. This is a good game with many familiar features found in other tactics roguelikes. The rewind feature is a godsend, but not overpowered because you can still die in a run. There is no rewinding death, only mistakes. Of the three classes currently included, two of them feel very well balanced on "Normal" difficulty. One of them (the rogue analogue) feels very restricted by the randomly generated map obstacles. But there are plenty of interesting and fair challenges in the campaign, and I'm glad to see the developer has already planned for additional content by adding weekly challenges. Story does not seem to exist, or maybe I just did not encounter story events, but the "one more run" feeling is satisfying enough to keep pushing through to the next map and see more delicious art. Overall, recommended if you loved Into the Breach, or other similar games. It's great to look at, has good sound, and interesting abilities.

A very rewarding slice of life, collectible, crafting game that actually wants you to play in bite size chunks. No marathon-ing in Cozy Grove, though you may find you want to stay long after you have completed the "daily" requests. TBH, I recommend this even more on one of the mobile platforms. It just feels at home in the hands, as you guide the bears and other creatures (drawn in SpryFox's signature style) through past memories, joyful and sorrowful.

This little gem is anything but small. It has big cyberpunk vibes (that actually do the genre justice) that permeate the entire game from the soundtrack to the lighting, and the seemingly ever-present rain. The story leaves just enough mystery to keep you moving forward, but the world is so beautiful and full of sights and collectibles that you feel compelled to just keep exploring, delaying the story in the best way. The random NPCs I've met outside of the storyline are also a treat to engage with. This is one of the best games to fly under the radar in 2020, and the studio just keeps giving. If you love cyber punk or ever thought Blade Runner was cool, even for a second, don't miss this game.