Recent reviews by Neils

I've played thousands of games, and this is my favorite.

Right now the steam version isn't loading past the title menu. I miss playing this, please repair your masterpiece.

Hey, we're just on Steam
And this is crazy
Here's a program called Godot
So make a game maybe

The literary critic Susan Sontag once wrote that artists were brokers of madness. That they invaded realms of insanity to bring back some truth uncorrupted by politeness or good taste, and so were changed by the trip.

What sort of place do you return from to make Obenseuer, and who am I now, that I’ve wandered this Urban Subnautica for over 100 hours?

Jank, early access, fetch quests. Then a mental health stat that only shows up on the ui when it’s been dinged, usually accompanied by a thirst for alcohol, cigarettes and hallucinogenic mushrooms. But not bland-ass water. Water is depressing. Incarceration, sudden defecation, and one midnight robbery later and my mental health is a red-shaking frowny face, spurred on by a crippling mushroom addiction. Here it’s clear that Obenseuer is not just one thing, it’s at least three.

1. Rare mechanics

The first I’ll tell with a little story.

I wake up, after sleeping in my own apartment mind you, having taken huge hits to my mental health. The first night I was missing some of my money on waking, the next night, while sleeping, the cops went through my pockets, the next time I slept, unable to move or react, I heard someone laughing and there’s text saying something feels wrong. I’m trying to quit my mushroom addiction but between that and terrible sleep, awful food, bad everything, even the sauna is only raising my mental health one or two percent - because low mental health limits what you get from once-pleasurable activities. From a game mechanics perspective, Obenseuer might be one of the most interesting takes on the relationship between mental health, addiction, and housing insecurity that I’ve ever seen.

2. A uniquely urgent grind

Running from the cops to get your scams done and unload valuables. Aggressively looting manufactured goods to upgrade your tenement to get people off the streets. Dropping everything to go and find some cigarettes or moonshine before the sinking pit of addiction sends your mental health into a death spiral. This game, even when you’re pouring water over coals in the sauna, has absolutely zero downtime. In the game My Summer Car, a Sauna actually feels like a sauna. You pour water and let some time pass as the steam sizzles with sumptuous sound design. In Obenseuer, you click it frantically, maximizing your mental health output before - a few seconds later - crippling thirst starts tearing your lungs from your chest. Stopping to relax means your crops and mash are spoiling, your window to hit the shops closed, or in those rare slices of free time between rushing to keep your mind and body and tenement building alive, you’re not advancing the story. But maybe you haven’t discovered it. That’s understandable, the story is hiding from you.

3. A non-obvious world

In the same way Subnautica’s deeper story doesn’t force itself at all, but just sits there deep in the ocean, waiting to be discovered, there is a story - Somewhere between Twin Peaks and Escape from LA, maybe a dash of Schindler’s List. While it’s been in EA, and is planned to be in early access for some time, there are layers of detail in the world that aren’t obvious at first. Doors that you don’t even know you can lockpick, or get a key for, with world-changing details just behind them. Whole areas with 40+ hours of gameplay that open up with the story, with a whole world beyond the world, which you’ll only know about if you happen to open one specific secret door or ring just the right door buzzer. Secret passages. Doors behind doors and safes with combinations painted here and there. Most of it hiding in plain sight, so easy to miss when a red-shaking icon for mushroom addiction quivers at the edge of your screen.

It’s a game where you can make moonshine out of human ♥♥♥♥, and then drink it, where you can put a live cat into a dishwasher to make it your cat, and serenade cops while they chase you in order to incarcerate you for the many varied crimes possible in Open Sewer.

It’s also unfinished, as a man boldly tells me as I hand him a passport after 80 hours of grind and struggle that the devs haven’t finished this area. It’s janky, as I am locked out of one medium-sized apartment that may forever be bugged, so some tenants may forever be unhoused. It’s filled with grind that is spectacularly absorbing, while being absolutely unnecessary, with whole skill trees that seem to literally only be about crafting oven mitts and teddy bears.

And a part of me aches to go back. To know what’s really happening in the world of Obenseuer.

Nice, tightly-made demo! Worth trying for fun perma tactical encounters, quirky pixel art and a neat city-upgrade game.

My DLC migrated over from Blacksmith is missing. I supported this game when it was in limbo, paying premium game prices to show that I believed in Ironmace's vision. After going through a complicated process to migrate that purchase to steam, to enjoy some benefit of that earlier support, I no longer have access to any benefits from that substantial purchase here on steam.

Ironmace, is that by design? Did I miss a memo? Support the gamers who supported you. I'll look past the issue of charging 25$/50$ for founder's editions, only to make the game free a month later. If you're going to create a challenging process for bringing that purchase to steam, then how does it make sense to remove that with no explanation?

Epilepsy Simulator 2025.

11/10

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The Long Dark is one of the greatest games of all time, and best cared for by a developer ever.

For the $3.50 they're asking right now it's an absolute steal.

Get it. Get wrecked. Get wrecked again. Have a good time.

This game came out of Early Access?

You guys, it has a PURRING DRAGON and GHOST RAVES.

Wizard amongus is best amongus.

Cute art, catchy music and very smooth gameplay (with rich balancing options) make this an an awesome one to play with friends.