Recent reviews by Hellburgs

Isometric Resident Evil Outbreak (kinda). Solo is difficult, but where the game really shines is in multiplayer get a few friends and kill zombies and eldrich horrors while trying to hack people's computers, get the mission MacGuffin and get out before monster made of hair rips you apart. It's still Early Access as of this writing, but it's $8 AND there's a free version your friends can download so that they can play the full game with you without having to own it. A four player, co-op, isometric RE clone for under $10? It's literally cheaper than diner at McDonald's. Opera Night, kiddies!

You don't have to know anything about poker because it gives you all possible hands and cards remaining in your deck at any time you wish for it. It's not a poker game. It's a rogue-like deck-building make numbers-get-bigger game. I lost 4 hours playing it and I don't know where they went.

If you somehow don't already own Doom, it's $20 for the smoothest, best version of the game along with an entire new game. Just cough up the $20 already.

It's a cute, clever little tactical puzzle game. It shares more with Into the Breach than XCOM, but it's very clear about this in the trailers and descriptions. If I had to sum it up in a sentence, "What if XCOM was a super casual puzzle game with wizards?"

Looking for cozy horror? This is it. Atmospheric and creepy without being a jumpscare game. Very nostalgic for people of a certain age and time. It is free so all you're "spending" is the hour or so it'll take you to play through it. Highly recommended that you spend that hour.

The three-person squad gimmick is neat, and really adds some personality to a game with no dialog or plot. The devs are still tweaking all the systems, and each update has been overwhelmingly positive for the game. Very interested to see what gets added for the final two survivors and 3(?) stages. Great time killer, lots of achievements and items to unlock. Paid full price and don't feel ripped off, but if you're on the edge grab it on a sale for a steal of a deal.

The demo feels really half-baked. The path to unlock weapons seems unclear. Upgrades are laid out pretty much exactly like 20 Minutes Till Dawn, but you can't actually choose the upgrade path; it seems to just level them up in a pre-determined order. It looks nice, but it feels more like a proof of concept than a demo at this point. I'm going to keep an eye on it, though, because I really do hope that it improves.

Some friends and I spent the evening running around, shouting fake military jargon at each other while accidentally wandering into our own mine fields or setting each other on fire with flamethrowers and stumbling back-asswards into an amalgamation of insect monsters from like five different sci-fi universes merged together. The evening capped off when I shot an undetonated nuke lodged inside a giant bug's corpse and it went off and obliterated my friend. It's stupid. It's fun.

It's a half-baked game that someone slapped a "Lovecraft" sticker on the side and called done. There are far worse games out there, but at $20 you could also find far, far better.

Recommended with the huge caveat that this is an Early Access/Open Beta in all but name.

The core game is there. It looks, sounds, and plays great.

However, it is missing crafting features, the endgame loop is grindy in an unfun way, and the team is still adding maps and weapons that probably should have been in at launch.

Also there are weird bugs but personally I haven't found anything gamebreaking (like falling through the floor at spawn) since the actual betas.

It feels a lot like they tried to make Vermintide into a game-as-service ala Destiny but dropped the ball. Then again, even Destiny was kind of crappy in the first few months after launch (still loved it, though).

Edit: One year later, Fatshark have put a lot of work into this one. Talent trees have been redone, more missions have been added, crafting is mostly intact now. It's still a grind, there's still the usual complaints about patches and nerfs and what not, and for some reason they're still dedicated to this live-service game. All that said, it's still a good game, even better than a year ago. Is that worth your $40? Your call. It's like $25 on sale most times and at that price it's more than worth it. Cosmetic cash store remains, but if you don't want to spend money then don't? FOMO is your issue.

If the concept appeals to you and you don't mind dropping $40 on what is essentially an Early Access release, go for it. Otherwise I say wait a few months to see how they improve it or wait for a discount or incentive like free premium currency or something.

2024: Game still alive, game still good.