Recent reviews by Tripl3M

After finishing the game as well as completing several of the side activities I can say:

WOULD
(except for Raika, what is wrong with you)

Overall fun story, if sadly a bit short.
Great characters. I wish I could be one of Minami's nameless minions.
Plays surprisingly well without VR
Fun art style that gives the game a unique feel.

I was told to get a life as a quest.

10/10 game

I will eagerly follow this dev's future games. They do amazing work and I have never seen such a well thought out design choice.

Also the game is pretty good (nice movement, good soundtrack, nice level design) but mostly Sybil's cheeks.

Factorio is as much as a game as SimCity, Stronghold or Eve Online. If you find enjoyment in those types of games and charts, then you will like Factorio.

Factorio is along the lines of an classical RTS, utilizing 3-4 base resources to process and construct new buildings. The entire process is a little more complex than your common RTS. The core of Factorio’s gameplay is to gather iron and copper ore, then smelt them into a plate with coal and begin processing them into more complex and refined materials. The deeper you go down the tech tree of Factorio; the more complex and time consuming the production of the required material becomes.It’s not just a vertical depth the game has. Quite soon after starting your world, you will need to start working on generating electricity, an entire system on its own that requires observation and maintenance. Shortly after that, oil adds another system and in most cases it won’t be close to your main base of operation, meaning you need to start working on ways like trains or drones to transport the larger amount of resources from the production centers to your main processing centers.

This may sound like a lot at first and speaking from my own experience it was but you also have to consider that this is a very slow game which is the reason why I compared it to the previously mentioned games. Factorio may expand quiet into the viable options for you to focus on but it does so over a 2-5 hour time period for each new system, depending on how fast you are. Additionally, Factorio comes with great multiplayer support which eases up a lot of the complexity when you can figure it out with a friend.

Although the multipliers help a lot and the time frame is well placed, Factorio is still a complex game and with that will be a niche. The game will ask you to either pick up on resource management and some other economic ideas quickly or bring them with you prior to play it, or you will end up clocking up your production system and the game will slow to a halt, forcing you to fix the problem before continuing. In addition, the base setting of a world is a hostile one, meaning as you expand your factory, hostile mobs will begin to attack more frequently and in larger numbers.

Suggesting Factorio to a new player is a hard decision to make. Personally, I am a person who enjoys having the options of filling his screen with more graphs than gameplay and this is how I spend most of my time playing Factorio by fine tweaking production and transportation as my friend works on processing and research. My opinion is that Factorio is a great game which will consume hours without end from you due to its nature but if you’re thinking about getting it, I suggest asking yourself if you like graphs and if you enjoy optimizations.

What is beauty?

When you boil it down to a core meaning, it’s the subjective interest of a person in a certain style or sense. It’s something that’s different for every person, yet there are certain things which are always considered beautiful.

Ori and the Blind Forest is one of them. No matter how your taste may differ, we all can agree that this is one of the most beautiful games out there. But is aesthetics alone a reason for me to suggest this game? No.

Outside of the artstyle Ori and the Blind Forest offers metrovania 2D plattformer with solid controls, no matter whether you play with controller or keyboard. It plays very smoothly and after a few minutes with a new ability the usage of it becomes natural and integrates into your playstyle. A big gripe, I have with other metrovania like games, is the problem of having too many different abilities with which you hardly interact. Just like any game of that genre Ori starts out easy and slowly becomes something that is quite challenging at the end. Especially the climax which is one of my favorite and hardest platforming experiences to date.

Binding these two together is a soundtrack which just keeps you wanting to play more. While it is a static loop of music for each area, dungeon and boss fight it never conflicts with the situation, no matter how action heavy or relaxed it is. Something that I occasionally bugs me with games like Transistor, Kingdom, Not a Hero or even Undertale, games with amazing soundtracks of their own, but not soundtracks I couldn’t listen to forever while playing. Ori and the Blind Forest’s soundtrack is so well crafted that it just blends into the game so well they just become one. The last game I remember doing this was Super Mario Galaxy.

As for story it is the only aspect of Ori where it doesn’t stand out to me. Maybe because I am very well read and therefore this doesn’t stick out unlike previously mentioned games like Undertale and Transistor, but nonetheless it is a good and solid story which utilize the gamespan of about 5-8ish hours (6 hours in my case at the time of writing) to constantly pushes forward without forcing the player to do something. The story has many fun twists and turns which end up in a beautiful climax. Note how I never say ending but climax and that for the second time in this review. Unlike endings, a climax is the point of most tension in the story and the way Ori and the Blind Forest is written and presented takes the rather normal story and turns it into something fun and engaging.

So overall what is Ori and the Blind Forest?

It’s a game where all individual parts form something bigger than a collective of mechanics and music and art. They become something new and even more fascinating and fun. For that alone I can suggest this game to anyone.

The main tag line of this game is tasteful, nice and surprisingly well shoutable in many situation.

• At the polictical rally about some boring politician? Make it more fun by representing BunnyLord
  
• Trying to get some people motivate for a event? Explain to them why BunnyLord would see this as a opporunity to improve mankind and be cool
  
• Beating up some sorry douche? Yell it into his face so he knows why he is being beaten up.

But really what is Not a HERO about?

The totally rad BunnyLord came from the future to be elected mayor of your city because if he's not there will be like a totally unrad doom explosion and so in order to be elected BunnyLord and his Fun Club will eliminate all crime... by shooting it in it's ugly face.

And so we come to the gameplay:

Now Not a HERO is technically speaking a 2d “cover based” shooter but if you’re like me then it’s more like a run and melee/shotgun enemies down and before you know it, you’ve fell in love with Mike and are on a 30 Killstreak through a five story building and only 35 seconds into the mission.

That sounds like a lot? It’s not really because most of the game is designed around the idea of constantly switching between always moving and using the cover mechanic to plan ahead. X is your slide which does two things, slide you into cover and knock enemies over. C is your fire button and if someone is knock over to assassinate them. Your V is for special weapons which can be found in the levels and the rest are your arrow keys. Quite simply mechanics, right? What ties it all together are the characters, which there are plenty of and different enough to be enjoyable. Mike, the one I mentioned earlier, for example has a shotgun and a machete. He is a fast character which can silently assassinate enemies and has a powerful shotgun, but it only has two shots and the reload is very long. So most of the time you will be tackling enemies left and right and just slicing through their necks like a extremely hot knife through warm butter… for BunnyLord’s election of course, not because you enjoy killing all these hopeless meatbags.

So it’s a game with simplistic controls? Nothing new, there are plenty like that out there and the idea for the core gameplay isn’t neither. But most levels will force you to pick your battles. Sure you can just murder your way through a level, that’s easy, but completing the additional goals for extra glory to BunnyLord can be quite challenging. Even more you can’t complete all 3 additional task in separate runs of one level. It all needs to be done in one try which becomes especially hard if you’re asked to rush through a level in 30 seconds to find a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ phone which is hidden somewhere in that ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ level and there are like 5 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ which can’t be knock down for assassinating so you just have to ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ murder them and waste your ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ precious time… On the other hand the soundtrack really helped me let my rage flow into Mike and the vicious killing rampages I have. The 8bit style of music feels good and smooth and even after trying a level several times doesn’t become annoying.


To sum it all up: Not a HERO is a fast paced game about a time traveling bunny who wants to become the mayor and gets a bunch of assassin to do his campaigning. The gameplay, art style and soundtrack fit wonderfully together, they are lots of milkshakes in it and it’s even political.


And really what is a little bit of violence for a better tomorrow?

Basically you like the Borderlands Universe: Get it, not really a question there.

You don't know the Borderlands Universe: It's a fun game on it's own. You'll miss some jokes like The Conference Call but it's not too bad.

Why am I suggesting it? I cried over a Loaderbot and I have destroyed thousands.

Just one more door...

These few words describe the entirety of the game. The question of what lies behind that closed door. Whether it is the exit or a merchant or just a empty room. This single constant thought is what drives me to try and open every single door in this game. The chance of finding maybe the little bit of dust to power another room. The hope of finding the exit and going for a wild run to it. The fear of seeing three door in the next room instead of one.

So what makes this game special? It’s this feeling of dread and wonder that you will experience in every single game. Dungeon of the Endless is by no standard a content heavy game or even has a little of items and enemies. It’s how it works with this small amount of content that generates this feeling. Each level is randomly generate when you load it and you’ll often see the same rooms. Problem is the layout is always different and the exit might just be in the next room or at the end of a long hallway. So what you need to do is slowly room by room explore your own maze and hope that with opening the next door no monster spawn, because you won’t be able to light up all rooms. Especially later on when Dust, their energy currency, becomes a rare commodity.

Outside of the very well used game mechanics it also has a lot of hidden story about each character/heroes you can unlock. By pairing up two certain or more heroes with another everytime you beat a level you get a bit of story about them. And let me tell you some of these pairings aren’t good. You can beat a level with it but it will be hard.


So all in all I would recommend Dungeon of the Endless.
Yes, the pixel graphics are very fitting with the game and the soundtrack. The gameplay is solid and even after failing on the tenth floor of the first level after 2 hours you want to try again and again and again. Because you’ll always be telling yourself:

Just one more door…

P.S. for the more hardcore of gamer: The game starts in Too Easy. You will fail on the Too Easy mode. Just throwing that out there.

The first part of the title of the game already describes it more than anyone could ever hope to.

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel is Borderlands.

As bad or as good as this sounds for some out there, it has it's ups and downs to it.

Mainly because the lower gravity isn't that big of a change to drastically change gameplay suddenly. It's there, but after a short while you grow used to it. Pretty much the same goes for the lack of air. It's there, though you're only really reminded of it by the constant voice telling you, that your air tank is half empty.

And that's mostly the bad about the game, that it's just Borderlands, but on the moon. It feels repetitive and stale at times, since you're still used to the insanity from Borderlands 2 and hearing more or less the same insults just in Australian isn't too entertaining.

Where the game really shines just like it's predecessors is in the classes. While I myself have yet only played Nisha, after talking to friends with the game and looking at the various trees, it's very clear that the classes are put together very well and in the cases of Claptrap and Jack very strongly push you towards co-op. Aurelia herself is just another example of how well the individual classes are made and still remain interesting.

There are also some small changes, which I generally enjoyed, like the switch from Eridium to moonstone, just because Eridium was a pain to come by in the first playthrough of a character, which is in the Pre-Sequel isn't the case. You need more of it in over the course of the first playthrough.

Another thing, I really enjoyed, was the grinder. Not just because it's a great way to get rid of useless items, but also because of the ridiculous awesome loot, that can come out of it.

All in all, it's a Borderlands game and in the end people should know what they're getting into. Some of the lines are just plain hilarious, the gameplay is smooth and fun.
Yet the game still can be quite boring at times as a larger part of the quest are very similar to the Borderlands 2 quests.

I personally enjoy it a lot and the classes are for me enough of a reason to buy the newest edition in the Borderlands Franchise.

I am going to be the one rare positiv review of this game.

Not because I want to be special, but because most people, that gave it a bad review, are looking at it from a actual MtG player perspectiv.

I for one would never suggest Magic 2015 or any of the PC/Console/Tablet games to experienced players, because they suck for us. We don't have all our decks, we're extermly limited in what we can do in a turn, there's no stack.

But for a returning player or someone who wants to learn the arts of Magic, how to play, how to deckbuild(-ish), how to think like a MtG player, then this is the best so far.

Most reviews complain about the lack of Planechase or Two Headed Giant modes and I don't see those being of any use to a new player. Actually I believe they would hinder them to understand how to play properly, as these fun games in Magic change the rules quite a lot (for example Planechase, Archenemy (Love that version)).

So with the lack of those and finally a completely free deck building option with 600-700 cards (from a main block (ca 400 cards) and 6 theme blocks (ca 400 cards)) there are just enough options for people to build various interesting decks.

Sadly this is where the good stuff ends. I've put the amount of cards of a set in here for the reason to show, how many cards a set usually has and this is where the line between the game and actual MtG(O) is. This small amount of cards allow for some interesting decks, but those are nowhere as good as they seem in here. I have several decks in this game with which I have won several times in these short 3 hours, but if someone would sit down opposite of me with such a deck, I would tell him to please play another person.

The cards were picked so the meta clock is as small as possible, making for a easy game for starters, but for someone, who constructed his deck for a Turn 2 Voice of Resurgence and then Turn 3 Tokenspam, Meta Game is important.

So my final word:

If you're a new player and want to learn Magic: the Gathering, buy the normal version of this game. Play through it, unlock all the cards, build some decks and if then still want to play Magic, then go out and look for a store to play.

If you're a experiecend player: Just don't... Seriously, this game is crap for our standards.