Recent reviews by ramblings

the floor is lava

I can't really talk about this game without spoiling it. The demo isn't representative of the game. I'll just say it's very meta. And the middle part can be a slog but it seems to be done like that on purpose. But great start and great finale. I loved this game.

Difficult competitive game that rewards teamwork, map knowledge, strategy, and is just simply fun fragging too.

Great soundtrack, great voice acting, unique and impressive aesthetic. Requires players to actually pay attention to details that are not pointed out by the game, such as voices, accents, nationalities, body postures, weapons, clothes, and pictures. Though I must admit, I managed to solve some fates with bit of brute forcing.

Also, how do you get the "Captain did it" achievement?

There is a lack of enemy variety and mission objectives that it starts to feel repetitive very soon. The strategic depth to this game is very simple that I didn't need to change up my style even though I played on the second highest difficulty. Since I never watched the Power Rangers or any other 80's kids show, I have no nostalgia for the references, which is the game's primary source of humor. There is a boss that has a dancing bear whose dance attacks do 0 damage that made me laugh though.

In the 5th chapter (or season as they are called), I wound up only with the assault ranger who got a super strong abilities to be able to solo through the missions. However, this gets repetitive too and the Tengu boss fight is the most cancerous episode ever.

It's pretty bleh.

I didn't know it would be so satisfying to type commands into a computer to open grates, disable security, and move a little robot through vents. This is a fantastic puzzle game that requires you to observe the area, plan how you'll reach the objective, and put it into execution.

In addition to this, this game has the typically wonderful Brendon Chung flair of worldbuilding. He leaves a breadcrumb trail of story and lore but only enough to keep you wondering and thinking about the characters and the story and what world they live in. If you played his prior games, you'll know what I'm talking about. The elliptical narrative that is reminiscent of Wong Kar Wai movies kept me on hook for 4 hours.

I'd say this game is definitely worth $20.

Stupid meme game pop culture reference humor

A short point and click adventure mystery game with a gorgeous artstyle and decent soundtrack. The puzzles aren't too easy nor too hard. There's only one or two instances of trial and error. Solving the puzzles just require observations and simple deductions. The final two puzzles drag on due to a lot of backtracking. I wished they added more shortcuts throughout the mansion. The ending is ok. Tries to tug at your emotions but for me, it fell flat because there was no foreshadowing of the ending and the overarching mystery of the mansion murders doesn't have much clues for players to speculate about.

I recommend getting this game on sale when it's $10 or less. $20 is too much for this short game.

I played this game on the hardest difficulty for my first playthrough. The first half of the game is pretty fun. The levels are nice, shooting is simple yet fun, and the stealth element was engrossing. The cutscenes are short and keep the story moving at a fast pace. And the main character you play has some voice over lines during gameplay that isn't distracting or trying to make jokes.

The problem is the second half of the game. They introduce tanky enemies that do lot of damage. It slowly goes from one at a time to a couple to it being the bulk of the enemies. And it gets so tedious trying to kill these enemies, you don't do the usual running around quickly and shooting people and throwing grenades everywhere. You sit behind cover and charge up your laser gun to try to one hit them. And then again. And then again. It killed my love of the game so quickly that by the end, I went from loving it to hating it.

Boring. Higher difficulty is just boss fights instakilling you and your homies.