Recent reviews by jorgandr

I love puzzle games, and this one in particular, scratches that itch in the best way. I think the thing I like the most, is how what you build can almost look like art, even while it's running crazy numbers into the main collector. This game's also got a nice escalation in challenge, especially with the upgrade system.

Pros:
- Lots of game time to be had, since there is no right answer to the puzzles.
- No penalty for resources. You can build as elaborately, or as simply, as you want, and completely destroy what you built without any sort of punishment.
- Super engrossing, due to the simple, but not necessarily easy, game play.

Cons:
- As much as I love the music in this game, I would give almost anything for there to be more than one track. Sometimes I just zone out and I don't notice it all. And other times, I have to mute it after a few hours.
- Upgrade element of the game needs instructions on how to go about it. It's not as intuitive as other aspects of the game. There are sources online that tell you how the upgrade mechanic works, but it takes a bit to find a good one, and it really should be something explained in game.
- For the few super useful shortcuts that the game has, I would love to have a CTRL+Z for undoing things, as opposed to clicking the button at the top right of the screen.
- (Maybe a bug) After long sprints of gaming, I have noticed that the audio begins to crackle and pop, and there are some moments where it seems the calculations just stop for parts of the machine. This could be due to memory usage issues in the game, or it could be my laptop (an Omen 15, so MORE than capable of handling this game).
- (Definitely a bug) There are a lot of times when you will see some major miscalculations that make no sense (like 10 x 10 = 0), and sometimes they can work themselves out. Other times, you end up having to break the machine where the issue stems, or destroy it and start all over again.

Overall, this game could greatly benefit from a few tweaks here and there, and the cons are minimal, at best. But I really love the game and believe everyone should give a chance at playing. Especially since it's such an inexpensive game, and one worth the risk of trying out just because it looks interesting.

Such a chill game with a heavy emphasis on just building your fantasy home in extremely pretty and calm environment. It just feels nice to have another game in my library that I can sit down and just lose myself in without any stress.

I've definitely put in more than 31 hours, but on Steam, that's all it shows. Although this will never compare to D2, I still think that the design team is headed in the right direction. The gameplay is solid, and it's gotten much better since release. The mob density rides the line between too much and just right, which is a drastic change from what felt like a barren world in the release version and Season 1. And the story finally feels like it's going somewhere. Which is something I couldn't say was the case for the past few seasons.

I think my biggest gripe is that some of the absolute best looking gear is strictly paid for, whether on its own ion the store or through buying a season pass. Which is a real shame, because the effort that they put into those cosmetics could definitely be put towards the folks that don't buy anything.

I'm a big fan of puzzle games, and somehow I slept on this one. After finally picking it up and installing, I can't stop playing. This game is probably one of the most devious time-sinks that I've ever had the pleasure of getting lost in. The music is nice and chill. The game doesn't penalize you for making mistakes, so you find yourself placing tiles where you might not intend to, but it doesn't matter, because it looks so serene. I highly recommend anyone who is a fan of puzzle games, or city builders, or both, to pick this game up and get lost in it for hours on end.

I am barely into the story and already I am floored. It's been a long time since I picked up a game and felt like I could do whatever I wanted and enjoy it, regardless of whether it was intentional or not. For example, in the ruins near the nautilus crash, I managed to persuade the bandits outside to leave off without fighting them. Then I busted the partial hole in the ground with a heavy stone and faced off with at least five more bandits. Looking ahead into the hallway outside my room, I saw an oil barrel. So, I decided to see if a flaming arrow and a barrel of oil could change the tide of battle. And did it ever! One shot and I killed all five or six members of the bandit team in that area and never took a single bit of damage myself. The last time I was able to do something as creative as that in an rpg was in Neverwinter Nights.

My only issue with the game is that even on an Omen 15 laptop, and allowing the game to auto detect my settings (it says Ultra, but I think it might be a bit more gracious than reality), I am running into some serious frame juttering and stutters in all kinds of places. I have dropped the settings down to high, with a frame rate cap of 60, and some of the more demanding effects severely reduced or just off, altogether, and I still am having issues. It could be some hold over bugs from the early access had with DX11 that I still can't quite resolve, or something else entirely (I can't even boot up the game under the Vulcan setting, unfortunately). I am just going to chalk it up to new release bugs and wait for Larian to patch it up. The same thing happened with their Divine Divinity: Original Sins games, and they got a lot of performance issues cleared up in a relatively short amount of time.

There is a lot to love about this game, honestly. It's a solid first person shooter with excellent controls and a solid story. However, there are a fair number of things that aren't as great: balancing issues, repetitive missions and zones, and a number of needlessly cryptic quests. But all in all, between the PS4 version and this one, I have probably put in well over 300 hours into this game and I would recommend it to anyone, honestly.

If you are a fan of Diablo and Diablo2, then this game feels like a spiritual successor to what part three could have been and then some. The mechanics aren't dramatically different from what you would expect from a lot of the current loot-grind ARPGs out. Grind out, level up, dump points into stats and abilities, repeat. However, much like the Titan Quest series, you have skill trees that allow for you to focus on two skill sets and completely build out a character that plays the way YOU want it to play. In addition to that, you have a constellation board that further modifies your stats, and in some cases, augment abilities to make them more powerful or have secondary offensive/defensive abilities when the attaches ability is triggered. This makes for a TON of customization and a lot of ways to make you feel like you're character feel even more powerful than normal. And, as a loot-grind game, there are tons of gear that not only help you survive the massive mobs of monsters you'll be taking out, but they might also have the added bonus of providing you with additional skill buffs, ability augments, or new abilities altogether.

This game also sticks to the tried and true formula of main quest and side quest grinding to help flesh out the story and build up your character as you play. And you will definitely want to do as many side quests as you can, because this game makes no bones about grinding you into dust, just when you thought you were the toughest s.o.b. on the block. And as you gain fame and infamy, via a reputation system, you will begin to gain access to better crafting recipes and other vendor content, as well as getting face-to-face with bigger and badder "hero" mobs.

If I had to have any complaints with the game, it is that there can be a bit of learning curve in how the skills work and what works for your play style. Fortunately, there is a dearth of information on the web on what can work well and what can be very hard to work with (granted, a lot of these focus on end-game and set gear, but it can still be useful). Also, the questing system isn't always the most clear and it is really easy to get lost looking for the next link in the chain to the main story or a side-quest. And the difficulty can really ramp up out of nowhere and absolutely punish you with little to no warning. The good news is that you can recover your corpse and regain some lost xp.

All in all, this game is an absolute blast and it's well worth the slight learning curve and difficulty spikes. I feel like this is where Activision-Blizzard really needed to go with Diablo 3, but were just to afraid to make the leap and take the risk. And it just feels right when you're playing it.

Barely an over an hour into this game, and already I’m impressed. Graphically, this game is just nuts. Probably some of the most beautiful I’ve seen in a game in quite some time (and that’s WITHOUT being able to use RTX shaders).

Gameplay is solid, although it does feel like the console controls were priority and keyboard/mouse were a bit of an afterthought. Also, the gunplay feels a bit weak (at the moment), and bad guys are just bullet sponges that swarm you and can kill you WAY faster than you can kill them. Which isn’t a complete shocker, since were talking about a game developed by the Max Payne team.

The story, so far, has a very season one X-Files vibe to it. I can’t wait to see what happens and how it spins out as I progress. But the voice acting can feel a bit stilted. And the facial animation isn’t always accurate to the dialogue and sometimes comes off a bit dead looking (also not a big fan of the weird dead eyes of the main character... something about them seems off).

All in all, this is a genuinely solid game and a steal at 20 bucks, and I can’t recommend it enough for fans of third person shooters. Doubly so, if you’re into weird, but interesting, sci-fi.

Runic did something that I didn't think was possible: They out Dialbo'd Diablo. If ever there was a game that you felt the itch to grind for better, and better, and even better loot; Torchlight 2 is that game. I have always been big fan of the series, and I think that the Runic guys really outdid themselves on this one. Sure, the story is not nearly as encapsulating, or epic as the Diablo franchise. But, honestly, it's not really why most people play this game. It's straight up a gear grinder's love affair. That isn't to say that the story is terrible, it's not. If anything the biggest issue with this game is that the story is just good, but fairly forgettable.

Where Runic really nails it is with the sheer amount of gear you will churn through in any given play session. These guys too the loot algorithym that Blizzard introduced the world to back in Diablo, and cranked it up to 11. It's pretty much a guarantee that if you think you found a good piece of gear, in about five minutes, there will be better.

And then there is the added bonus of having a pet that doubles as your extra bag slot, and as your battle-buddy. I mean, who doesn't appreciate a bulldog that shoots a fireball out of his mouth after he summons five skeletal archers, a rampaging imp, and a slighty ragey ghoul? And if you don't like that? Add a different spell to him after he gets back from town selling all the crap loot you collected along the way.

Honestly, if you want a fantastic substitue for Diablo, I can't reccommend this game enough. It might not have the legacy of the Diablo franchise, and it might not have the MASSIVE amount of freedom of Path of Exile, but it will not dissapoint fans of classic top-down click-fest loot hoarders out there.