Recent reviews by danielOut

tldr - the dwarf fortress of MMOs.

This is a MMO for a specific kind of player, and I just happen to be that kind of player. A delightful blend of old school MMO design plus a wildly huge assortment of systems to interact with. The grind is real, but the community generally very positive and helpful, and there is so much to do buried away here. Gorgon has the freedom to know what its niche is and settle in to it comfortably, giving it space to do things that just wouldn't fly in the modern large scale MMO designs. The absurdly tiny team means an expected amount of jank, but that's part of the charm here.

Poorly designed Melvor Idle. A lack of understanding of gameplay loops, UI/UX, and how to engage the player. So much in the UI layout just isn't intuitive or helpful - huge lack of iteration, playtest, and polish. Was hopeful for something that took the classic Melvor starting point and spun in in to something unique, but instead just got what feels like a rough prototype of a game with some AI art on top.

tldr: It is a fun little game with some neat ideas, and for under $10 it's hard to feel bad about the purchase. This likely won't be the best idle game you play this year, but it won't be the worst. If you don't mind a short (1-2 days idling to beat) little game with some neat ideas, and you don't mind build optimization that isn't necessary but is still interesting, then you'll enjoy it. I did.

Lots of skills, stats, items, and upgrades builds a solid foundation for idle gameplay with progression across a number of different areas. The downside is that it rarely leverages any of these effectively. It is fun to see numbers go up, but you can beat the whole game in two days by just mashing equip best after every dungeon run. Even very basic optimization of your builds will have you blowing through bosses the game estimates you have a ~30% win chance against.

I ended the game with 32 million gold, having spent hardly any. I only upgraded one building to max; the rest weren't necessary. I never found it useful of necessary to purcahse anything at the shops, and rather than trying to catch up my under levelled heroes i'd just throw them away and hire new ones at the tavern periodically.

The UI is probably my biggest complaint; it is absolutely horrendous to navigate. So much flipping back and forth between screens, lots of oversized buttons (maybe optimized for touch?) take up too much room, and broadly managing my team was a hassle. Huge overhaul could do well here.

I'll keep up with this game as updates roll out though; like I said before the bones are good. Needs a little more time in the game balance oven before I'd call it ready for prime time, and some additional polish wouldn't hurt, but it really sets up a foundation that could push it to a real awesome little hero management idler.

Definitely an interesting concept here, but unfortunately I didn't feel like the gameplay held up. The chore of forging (with multiple clicks for various parts of the process that have no mechanical relevance) just didn't hold up as the core loop. I think a streamlined version of the blacksmithing could make a fun minigame as part of a larger product, but as a standalone title it just didn't feel like it hit.
The UI also is a little clunky - this feels like it was designed with touch in mind, perhaps? Moving between rooms just feels like it could be quicker, an each room has so few interactions that you're constantly swapping around.

That being said, it is very clear there is a lot of love an care in the presentation. Consistent art style across the game, a pretty straightforward and quick tutorial, some physicality to the objects in how they're manipulated in the inventory an screens. I definitely will keep an eye out for any future titles from this studio.

What a great release for Qud - I lived, I died, and got to experiment with a ton of different builds that all felt unique. The variety of options presented here and the interesting world present such a rich place for emergent player stories that Qud is a must play for fans of the genre.
I think it also does a wonderful job of providing lots of gameplay options to let players tailor their journey in the game to their preferred level of difficulty. The level of punishment the game dishes out can be tailored to match how you want to engage with the game. If you're down for lots of deaths and restarts, that's obviously there for you, but I think it also presents multiple other ways to experience the game that don't imply a lesser experience. While I am all aboard the pain train myself, this makes games like this much easier for me to recommend for someone wanting to dip their toe in the genre.
Go on, give it a go. Grow some limbs.

This reminds me somewhat of early idle games from the flash era, but unfortunately that's mostly due to the simplistic shapes and dated-feeling design. There's a lack of game balance her in terms of currencies, damage rates, and unlocks that just makes the progression curve miss that satisfying feel of a lot of idle games.
There's also an issue of a number of bugs in the UI, along with achievements unlocking in clusters seemingly at random - I certainly haven't played long enough to have many of the achievements it awarded me. All in all I think this feels like an early prototype of something that has some promise, but certainly not ready for prime time yet.
It seems unfair to compare this to Perfect Tower, though I think that's probably the most apt comparison. And when you do it there is definitely a world of difference.

Absolutely worth the wait - the craft on display here is phenominal. What an absolute gem of a game. Short, delightful tactical puzzles. Witty, wonderful writing. A ♥♥♥♥♥♥ situation but a world full of charm. And charms. Buy this game. Play it.

The game has loads of polish, but unfortunately the gameplay itself falls a bit flat. The RTS elements just don't have the variety that makes it interesting, and base building doesn't have the variety and replayability that I'd hope for. Add time limited MTX boosters and it just doesn't feel like the kind of game I want to spend my time with. There are lots of other colony sim games out there, and this one fails to stand out above the rest.

An interesting take on the 4x genre that unfortunately tries to do too many things at once - loaded with systems that don't harmonize well, I would have loved to see Millennia focus on really polishing fewer systems to make them stand out rather than the current soup of systems that all just feel jumbled together. A late game with exceedingly long AI turns and lackluster win conditions just doesn't deliver the satisfaction of playing through to the end. The first half of the game is exceedingly better than the back half - if the whole game played more like that it might be enough to sway me to recommend.

ORX, even in early access, is gem of a tower defense game. With a beautiful, unique art style and mechanics that keep the gameplay interesting this a delight on all fronts. If you're looking for a perfectly balanced game, maybe wishlist it until Early Access is over, but don't forget about ORX when the time comes. Already the two factions provide very different gameplay feel, however, and there is enough content for multiple interesting runs.
Each map presents interesting and compelling choices between playing it safe and overextending to try to secure additional bonuses. If you love playing Carcassonne, but wish it was much more frantic and stressful, then grab ORX.