Recent reviews by boltumbles

piace of poop from a but game

Creating a game that follows up on Hollow Knight's legacy is a herculean task, and unfortunately Silksong ends up feeling very mediocre in comparison to its predecessor.

It has the look and feel of Hollow Knight; the environments are beautifully crafted and the characters feel right at home in its world. Silksong undoubtedly falters in its combat - nearly every enemy does two hearts of damage, a privilege that, in the original, was reserved explicitly for endgame bosses with a few fringe exceptions. That coupled with an overall lack of weapon progression (the first nail upgrade is around six hours into the game) makes you feel very squishy and fragile, ALL the time.

The Tools system is meant to counteract this, making it easier to engage with enemies from a distance... with the unfortunate side effect of forcing you to play every interaction in the safest, most boring way possible, since everything melts you if you dare to fight up close. If the choice is between Hollow Knight and Silksong, I'm picking (and recommending) the original game, one hundred percent.

Despite its popularity, I consider Guilty Gear Strive to be one of the less accessible games in the fighting genre; it took me an embarassingly long time to actually get a grasp on the control scheme after playing more traditional 6-button games like Street Fighter and Skullgirls. Once you jump that hurdle, though, it's incredibly fun to play. Very flashy and stylish all around, but not in a way that makes it hard to tell what's going on. Has had some very questionable balance decisions as of late, so I advise you to be a bit cautious if you're a first-time player looking to get into the franchise like I was.

One of my biggest gripes with Your Only Move is Hustle was the pacing of its gameplay; the stickfights are really cool, but I've never been much into calculated, chess-type strategy games. A Few Quick Matches is like that but more accessible, and playable by an actual human being. The ability to airdash out of ANY hit makes for some crazy-looking combos, and raises the skill ceiling to the stratosphere. This one has a lot of potential and I can't wait for it to get some updates under its belt; a starting roster of 3 characters is admittedly a bit underwhelming, but they're all equally fun to play and suit their archetypes well.

One of the most addicting roguelikes I've ever played. Balatro combines three of my favorite things - poker, weird hyperspecific game tech, and exponential growth - and wraps 'em all together with a neat bow on top. Would absolutely recommend this to any card game or statistics enthusiast, or anyone who's like me and just enjoys seeing big numbers get bigger.

The majority of this game is just the right amount of difficulty, but the final area is complete CBT for absolutely no reason. Looks and feels great, but the areas start to feel samey after a while.

RoR2 used to be one of my all-time favorite roguelikes, but the release of the Seekers of the Storm DLC has left it in an absolutely unplayable state. Tons of borderline useless items, new stages that completely clash with the feel of the vanilla game, and a heaping helping of gamebreaking bugs; most of which have been patched, but releasing DLC in a state that makes even the *base game* a total glitchfest is completely unacceptable. Gearbox absolutely butchered this game, and it's not worth your time nor money to play it.

Pretty solid overall, but doesn't do much to stand out from the crowd as far as roguelikes go. Visuals are muddy and cluttered. There's no audio feedback upon taking damage which makes it hard to tell when you get hit at all given the music-focused nature of the gameplay. The custom music system is very sophisticated, though; being able to import any song you want to serve as the game's BGM is a pretty nutty concept. A bit rough around the edges, but shows a lot of potential!

A thrilling tale of murder, incest, and cannibalism, not necessarily in that order. Though this is essentially just a visual novel, actually walking around keeps the story moving at a great pace; it almost reminds me of OneShot in a way. Surprisingly lighthearted and funny considering its subject matter; I thought this game was going to be a lot more grim than it actually was. Pretty visual style, great OST. Ashley is very, very, very cute.

I never played the original Risk of Rain, but this is an absolutely phenomenal remake. The shift from RoR2's mouse & keyboard controls to RoRR's keyboard-only controls was a bit jarring, but I got the hang of things pretty fast. The one thing I'm not a fan of is the Providence Trials - short gimmick levels that give the game a bit of extra replayability, but are overall not my cup of tea. Tying ability unlocks to the trials feels like a bit much, but thankfully they're optional - if you're willing to do a grueling two hour-long run with every character, that is.