Recent reviews by lizardbrain

Edited after patches and more playtime. I'm recommending this because there's a massive amount of potential here, and it's early on in EA and the devs have plenty of time to fix things.
The world is gorgeous with interesting level design and a lot of little hidden corners; the setting and sword-and-sorcery theme is very well-realized and hearkens back to classic Conan. Any fan of fantasy or ancient European history will appreciate the care and detail put into the character and gear design.
There are a lot of interesting progression features around building up your renown on each run, but they're not always clearly explained. Some tooltips around the menus or a tutorial quest explaining how things like deeds and gods' favor works would do wonders for introducing players to these concepts.

Combat is extremely difficult and requires careful timing (and knowing when to just run away), but it's already massively improved since day 1 and feels much more responsive and a little more forgiving. It can still be a bit frustrating at times but there's a clever, rewarding system at its core and landing a heavy attack just before your opponent and watching their head fly across the tomb feels great.

All in all I think there's a really cool game in here that still needs a fair amount of work, but I'm very excited to see it come into its own. If you're a fan of the vibes here, it's absolutely worth a shot.

Brilliant little RTS with a gorgeous art style and a surprisingly engaging campaign story.

You don't get a lot of time between waves (the harder levels require you to move nearly as fast as a competitive RTS when it comes to resource gathering and unit production) but you can build and queue up orders while paused, which is a lifesaver. Building is intuitive and very satisfying, especially after you unlock all the pieces and construct your big ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ fortress and watch your little guys rain hell on the hapless horrors.

Absolutely worth the 30ish hours it takes to beat the campaign, and if you still want more there's survival and skirmish modes as well.

Simply one of the best open world RPGs ever. The attention to detail in every facet of the world is astounding. The writing is rock solid and although the main plot is perhaps a little long, it's never boring and filled with interesting, likeable characters and intriguing side stories.

The biggest downside is that the combat is extremely skill- and combo-based but also very clunky. Some of this is intended realism, but even when your stats are high weapon positioning and strike timing feels very sluggish. Enemies, of course, don't have this problem and a lowly bandit will easily dispatch you with a perfectly timed combo you can't defend against because you're stunlocked. The upside to this though is that it makes every combat encounter deadly serious and the game encourages you to surrender, run away or avoid fights altogether through the excellent conversation system.

Exploring the world and experiencing the story are well worth occasional moments of frustrating combat.

A solid 4x but the setting and writing is what really stands out. Interesting events and quests, and a narrative arc to each game that adds context for what you're doing but doesn't get in the way of playing the game.

I didn't expect the eldritch alien singularity robot god apocalypse to be written with such...heart? I actually feel for my plucky little guys going up against the building-sized nightmare monster with their AR15s.

This is the video game equivalent of taking your dog for a long walk--it's not exactly groundbreaking or mentally challenging, but it's straightforward and pleasant, you see some nice scenery, and every once in a while you get the pleasure of watching your pet idiot do something really, really stupid.

This game is not for everyone, but it is specifically for me. If, like me, you're a fan of old station wagons, the Pacific Northwest, Jeff Vandermeer and SCP-inspired surreal sci-fi, and gothic neo-folk music, this is the game for you.

Everyone's already said it, but it's true. This game sets a new standard for RPG stories, for tactical combat, and for sheer depth. It will take a long time for anything to surpass it.

Short, harrowing, and perfectly awful. The claustrophobia and existential dread seep into your brain like the blood leaking through your submarine ceiling.

I built a dam downstream of my sewage drainpipes and it backed the water up all the way to the pumping station, which then incorporated the raw sewage back to the drinking water of every single person in my city. 728 people died. That's when I realized this was a good game.

A fun, quick, compact shooter. Casual Far Cry with a slick art style and a healthy dose of spooky sci-fi mystery.