Recent reviews by Pyetech

A simple, smooth, and short incremental game. Everything ties together well enough, but it's basic and I was unimpressed by the diversity of unlockable mechanics compared to other games in the genre. While not required, repeatedly clicking (or hovering with the mouse) nets you a benefit, which I think is dated and poor game design.

Trimps is currently my favorite incremental game, followed by Orb of Creation.

Well-designed and extremely engrossing. Overwhelming in a good way; the variety of spell combinations allow for optimization and some creativity. Orb of Creation has a more active playstyle than some other incremental games (though you can still make progress passively) and it doesn't resort to repetitive tasks like spam-clicking.

My favorite incremental game will likely remain Trimps, but Orb of Creation is well worth playing in its current state (a large 1.0 update will apparently be releasing in the next few months)!

The lack of a prestige/ascension mechanic is notable, though I see the developer plans on adding one in. Same goes for rewarding achievements. I believe some upgrades on the right bar will create links between attributes, and I'd like to see these reflected in updated tooltips.

I will be back for the next update!

An early (as far as I'm aware) roguelike deckbuilder. Well-designed and enjoyable!

A walking simulator where you piece together a nonlinear story through basic logical deduction. Nonlinear storytelling is bog standard practice for lengthening a game, and the gameplay is very tedious, especially because you really don't interact with the environment. The progression itself is linear, so you don't feel like you're unraveling a mystery in your own way.

I appreciate the attempt at a unique artstyle, but it gets in the way of the gameplay since it is difficult to identify characters by sight.

As a roguelite citybuilder, Against the Storm is the first real evolution of the citybuilding genre I've seen since Pharaoh set the standard in 1999, with the possible exception of the more crafting-focused subgenre where conveyor belts abound, such as in Factory Town.

Somehow, it works, despite the inherent tension/dissonance between the two genres: the citybuilding fantasy is to create a huge, smoothly running ecosystem from nothing, whereas roguelites have the player starting over constantly. But citybuilders have always featured campaigns, so building multiple cities is to be expected.

Randomized available buildings, depletable resource nodes, and perks keep each settlement somewhat different. Against the Storm is full-featured, with (somewhat) rewarding achievements and features like daily missions. On higher difficulties, the game gets quite challenging--you need to try to put together an economy while fighting debuffs and a time limit (that you can push back), taking hits while struggling to get your feet under you without losing (if you can stabilize, it seems like you'll usually be able to finish successfully).

The downside of this mishmash of genres is that Against the Storm is very grindy and time-consuming. Missions are long and yet the cities built aren't of the scale found in other citybuilding games. Players will unlock permanent upgrades steadily but it will take a lot of playing to unlock them all. Previously completed cities will be destroyed every so often, and I can already see that in order to push some of the farthest locations, you will need to first set up several cities just for the attempt.

I had a lot of fun with Against the Storm and played it until it felt samey at about 40 hours, but I don't think I'll dedicate the astronomical time necessary to complete it.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is memorable, full-featured, lengthy, and fun.

The worldbuilding/lore, story, and dialogue are all enthralling (a rarity these days), which the game uses to seemingly effortlessly chain poignant moments. The voice acting and music are top-notch, as are the facial animations (presumably most of that credit goes to Unreal Engine 5).

The opening to Clair Obscur immediately drew me in with its polish and oppressive doomed horror fantasy setting. I wish the game had continued to lean into this atmosphere it had worked so hard to build, but the lighthearted Gestrals ruin what they had going soon after (I'm not someone who dislikes the Felynes or Grimalkynes of Monster Hunter, either).

The combat is compelling enough for a JRPG. Real-time button presses have always worked well as a system, and each character comes with unique mechanics. There are a wide variety of possible pictos/builds, though the Burn build I stumbled into felt pretty necessary given some of the endgame scaling. Speaking of the endgame, I was impressed by the amount of optional (perhaps postgame) content.

The developers were successful at making exploration rewarding, and Unreal Engine 5 can make areas look beautiful. I would say, however, that there's some movement and platforming jank, and that the boundaries of the traversable game area are not always clear. I don't think the world map was a positive inclusion, as it is inherently less immersive and at the end of the day, it's really nothing more than a hub.

I was intrigued by the mystery of the Clair Obscur's world, but found it at times to be frustratingly tight-lipped with regard to clues. The answer was acceptable and suitably complex (but a bit of a cop-out at the same time).

Does nothing new compared to Vampire Survivors or Dota's Crownfall: Nest of Thorns.

EDIT: Having played many more hours, I still think the game is too derivative but it's also too addicting. It's very grindy and upgrade-gated, to the point where it reminds me of the South Park quote: "What do you mean? Now we can finally play the game."

Hollow Knight: Silksong is a great game that's both lengthy and rewarding. Movement and combat feel very fluid, stylish, and responsive. The Bloodborne-style offense-focused combat (where you must deal damage to heal) fits the game well. The map is diverse and interconnected, with numerous discoverable shortcuts and secret passages.

I know there's been a lot of discussion about whether the game is too difficult. It's high skill cap and certainly not easy, but as someone with experience with Soulslikes, I wouldn't say it's overly difficult. I think Silksong's level of difficulty is appropriate and I hope it remains unchanged. The bosses are extremely generous with their telegraphs and the player has access to a built-in heal, so at worst, it felt "tough but fair". There's a grand total of one boss that I thought was poorly designed (Groal the Great), and one that frustrated me with its difficulty (Lost Lace). I used the Wanderer's Crest for pretty much the entirety of my playthrough.

My only complaints are the number of low-effort "kill waves of normal enemies" gauntlet rooms, and quest design that often asks you to backtrack to areas you've already cleared to search for objects or to kill a certain number of enemies (these quests should've been available at the start of your exploration).

I don't tend to notice a video game's music, but there are some great tracks here, with "Cogwork Core" being the standout as far as I'm concerned.

For $20, Hollow Knight: Silksong is a no-brainer.

Monster Hunter: Wilds is perhaps a disappointing sequel to Monster Hunter: World and an incremental upgrade at best, but it's still a very good game.

To preface this: as for my experience with the series, I've extensively played and loved Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate (in which I mained the Greatsword) and Monster Hunter: World (in which I mained the Longsword). In Wilds, I chose to try something new and mained the Hammer.

The actual monster hunting gameplay is still very solid. I enjoy the wound system they added with Wilds, even if it is a bit shallow.

However, many of the changes made from World are to the game's detriment. Seikrets have extremely negative consequences: they (by default) automatically run you to your objective, which deemphasizes exploring and learning the maps; they can climb, cross, and jump off of places where the player character can't by themselves, encouraging environment design where it is difficult to determine if there is a navigable path or not and generally making seikrets necessary for trial and error exploration; and they can be called in combat, allowing the player to cancel animations, use items, and sharpen their weapons while moving, which discourages learning a monster's moveset to identify where and when it would be safe to plant your feet and stand still to perform these actions. I do like that seikrets give the player more opportunities to perform jumping attacks for mount damage.

The story is fine but there are way too many drawn-out cutscenes and segments that limit your movement to the extent that they might as well be cutscenes. It's not uncommon to have a cutscene of people talking followed by a scripted on-rails seikret ride while people talk, followed by another cutscene of people talking. I did not appreciate my exploration and sense of adventure being limited by random "you can't go there yet" areas for the sake of the story.

The general interface, menuing, and systems for grouping are as clunky as ever.

Technically, it looks good although I do notice frequent polygon and texture LOD pop-in and I expect higher framerates than I'm getting.

The game's difficulty is lacking until partway into High Rank; it wasn't until I started fighting a title update monster that I felt the need to go out of my way to upgrade or optimize any of my gear. I haven't noticed particular power spikes like, for example, Anjanath in World...without a high difficulty, there's no incentive to itemize against your opponents, which means there's no reason to go back and farm monsters for parts, so the gameplay loop breaks down a bit. I would say 6+ star quests are appropriately difficult.

Postlaunch updates have been relatively slow.

I know that all sounds very negative but I enjoyed the endgame gameplay loop quite a bit, and was sad when I'd finished all the content. I will definitely be buying the inevitable G-Rank expansion on release.

It's good; it seems like more of everything from Monster Train 1. The gameplay is definitely there and I like the variety of the challenge mode scenarios. There are plenty of Clans to level up and combine in unique ways. The meta-goals are nice and lasted me 30 hours but I would've loved more of them for smoother/extended progression, perhaps like an in-game achievement system sort of thing. The story/cutscenes are pretty awful. I also miss combining units like you could with the first game's DLC. Slay the Spire is probably still superior but Monster Train 2 certainly scratches my roguelite deckbuilder itch.