Recent reviews by daniuse

I bought this game a month ago when it was 90% off.
I did NOT expect it to be so much fun for so long. Most of it comes to scratching the itch of old Bioware-style games, with classic RPG DNA — pretty deep worldbuilding, many fleshed-out factions, diverse companions set.
You have a pretty deep combat system with many options, from light to heavy weapons, to firearms or magic. Lack of diversity in enemy types does get a bit stale after some time, but the game makes a sincere effort to freshen it up a bit with some variation. Boss fights are a highlight of the gameplay. The tactis they make you use are not that complecated, but they do keep you on your toes and make you use your entire arsenal.
Despide clear Bioware influence Greedfall adds its own spin on things, often giving you several ways to get to your objective, sort of in an immersive-sim like way. The systems are not fleshed out, but there are options: basic stealth, diffrent traversal paths that get unlocked based on your build, diplomatic options and even dressing up for social stealth (though this sistem is used like twice in the entire game).
Your time will be spent roughly 50/50 between gorgeous wild areas and dense cities. Don't hope for any real exploration, a helpful quest markers will guide you to your every objective, and all areas are basically sets of corridors. But if I'm buing honest, this was absolutely not a problem for me. Greedfall feels like a comfort game, where I can spend some time in a pretty world, follow an interesting story and immerse myself into new and detailed setting. The challange of terrain navigation would take from that.
Cities were quite more interesting for me, if I'm honest. For a diplomat, your character does a lot of infiltration, espionage and social engeneering. Learning the secrets of characters and intricacies of these fictional societies was one of the most engaging parts of the game.
One needs to acknowledge the elephant in the room: this is a very uneven production. I did not encounter any game-breaking bugs, but some parts of the game were clearly more polished than other.
The writing is never truly outstanding, but some times it's quite clever, while other times it makes you raise your eyebrow. Some times you are met with a deeply cinematic shot or cutscene, but many more times the game just fades to black to not have to do extra animation. Some times you get teleported during the quest without any prompt, starting some scenes without proper intoduction. Subtitles often differ from the spoken lines, and even misspell in-game terms.
But I would say that all in all, Greedfall is better than the sum of its parts. It never reaches the hights of the greatest in the genre, but its hand-made nature and clear care from the developers make it a charming and enjoyable adventure.

Reviewing the game at the halfpoint.

Esoteric Ebb is like peeking in the campaign notes of a talented DM. You immediately dive into an intricate world with so many threads that you can loose yourself for hours. But you also get fun and quircky characters, witty notes on the edges of the page, extremely stylish doodles and even some deep political commentary within this woven tapestry.
This is the best feeling for a D&D-inspired narrative game. It does not resemble some corporate product, it feels like a conversation with a friend. Not to say it lacks polish, on the contrary. From a production value standpoint I can only praise the attention to detail in all aspects, from the vibrant art to diverse and unique soundtrack.
What I'm trying to say is that Esoteric Ebb has soul.
In today's world of design by commetee and generated content it is something as rare as gold.

Love from the first sight.
For those who love D&D for the free exploration, deep lore and interweaving narratives, this all that and more in a bright and charming package.

Polarity is a Portal-like 3d puzzle-platformer, that is mostly worse than Portle in every way, but was also made by a small indie team and not Valve.
It does scratch this itch of navigating interesting 3d evironment and puzzles are quite fun. I will give a thumbs up because Polarity gave me a small challange for one evening. But you need to be warned — the game seems to tie your jumps to your fps somehow so if you have more than 60 fps, jumps become very unreliable. This is borderline game-breaking bug, but you can go around it by manualy limiting fps for this game in Steam game properties.

I gave Titan Souls a solid one hour go, and I really like the concept I'm seeing so far… except I don't really feel like I have to get through the rest of the game to appreciate it any more.
You have one arrow, both you and bosses die in one hit, you need to find and hit their weak spots.
The first four tutorial bosses are actually pretty fun and diverse. If you *get* a boss from the get go, you can easily beat it in 5 seconds on the first try. if you don't, you will beat your head against over and over and over - dying and restarting within seconds.
For some reason it's not actually frustrating, just a bit repetetive.
I really like the music, the sound design and general atmosphere. I'm easily lost on the game map, and for the boss rush game, I don't think having a big and confusing map is the best idea. Though adds to the atmosphere of the desolation.
Overall, I'm not sure I will come around finishing Titan Souls, but I know that for some people it will be one of their favourite games. In any case, The team deserves commendation for the interesting and tight design.

Маленькая казуальная стратегия с милой рисовкой и музыкой. Что может быть лучше, чтобы расслабиться после рабочего дня?
Проходится за пару вечеров, самое то.

Satellite Reign is a tactical heist simulator in a very by-the-books cyberpunk setting.
You play as the handler of a group of operatives tasked with breaching into every vault and office of the city to gather all the tech to ultimately bring down a corporation hoarding the monopoly on resurrection tech. I say "bring down", but it's more like "take over the monopoly". It's not a story of some underdogs fighting against oppression. You do some questionable things in the name of some questionable powers, but at least you get to punish some baddies along the way.
But there is no point in spending much time on the premise of the game. The story is simple and given to you by text briefings, that I assume most people will skim over. Satellite Reign is mostly about gameplay.
And gameplay is what makes the game stand out. I have not played something quite like it. More than anything it reminded me of immersive sims I've played before: Deus Ex, Dishonred. Even though those are completely different genres, the ideas these games explore are quite similar.
You are given a big sandbox, objectives, a lot of varied tools and complete freedom of how you want to proceed. From factions to character powers — everything is interconnected, everything is a system.
Mastering the systems and creatively overcoming problems the game presents you with is very fun. You really feel like you're pulling of daring heists.
One criticism, if you even can call it that, is the presentation. It's not bad at all, actually it conveys the fantasy of neon-lit cyberpunk city very well. But it is pretty generic, and it does not feel very appealing. This is not the world you would like to immerse yourself in, and you will not come back to the game for aesthetic reasons. And the more interesting bits and pieces of the lore and the story are buried in optional logs or item descriptions. Well, until the ending. No spoilers, but it is extremely stylish.
Overall, really cool, really cool. Bravo to the developers

Played this game in one weekend. Got the worst ending. 10/10, will play again.
Every possible praise has already been said about this game, so I'll keep it brief. This is the best interactive narrative game in the style of Telltale, and probably one of the best superhero narratives of recent years.

The Beginner's Guide is a short linear narrative game that tackles the themes of relationship between the author, the art and the audience. The medium (a sequence of linear 3d levels that you experience in 1st person with overarching narration) makes this game one of the best examples of conversations of this topic, and a brilliant example of postmodern media.
It is commentary on commentary, and interpretation on interpretation, it guides you through it's narrative, holding your hand, and providing an illusion of introspective, but straight and sentimental analysis... right until it drops your hand and pushes you into the deep well to make your own interpretation.
On some level it is a cautionary tale of the death of the author, but I find it reassuring. I see in this game a message about the underlying value of art, even with all the struggles associated with it's creation (and experience).
But I also take from it the value of interpretation, recontextualization, even co-creation or modification. When extreme, those things may turn into delusions, yes, but when acknowledged as what they are, they can be as meaningful and as valuable as the original creation.
Maybe this is less a review of a game and more of a review of the thoughts it left me with — but for experience so layered and so often meta, I think it's fitting.

The deed is a micro detective game where instead of solving a murder in a noble house where everyone hates each other, you prepare and execute a murder.
This is a fun twist on the formula, in which instead of trying to piece together the logic of the criminal, you are trying to predict the logic of the detective.
As it goes, the murder is the easy part. What's hard is to track your every step to be sure nothing incriminates you, and at least some evidence points to someone else.
The game takes note of surprising number of your actions, and uses them against you, I mean, uses them to determine who will be found of ivenitable murder. The Deed really makes you think ahead and to think differently, and for this, it's a great little experiment in narrative/puzzle design.
Overall, it takes a little more than an hour to complete for the couple of endings, and maybe a two or three hours to 100%, so it's a good sweet chunk of a game, perfect for its price. Big recommend.