Recent reviews by oRustStation

Masterpiece of gaming, still 100% playable and worth anyone's time.
My only issue is this:
1. Remove Halo 4 or add Halo 5
2. Reorder Halo: Reach to be set after Halo 3:ODST

Finding out this dev worked on a Portal inspired game explains the astounding parallels found in the world-building of this game.

The game runs surprisingly well on Steam Deck, though it does drain the battery as it maxes out the GPU. Worth every minute of charge time. However, controller support needs work - the first boss becomes nearly impossible when you have to press 'Y', move your thumb to aim, then lift off the stick to press 'Y' again to throw while the boss rapidly moves and fires obstacles. Yes, I know I can rebind controls, but I think a default scheme that works would benefit all players.

Excellent sound design from music to effects, with very clear indication when enemies are staggered. The destruction mechanics feel incredibly satisfying and the movement system is absolutely fluid.

I cannot wait to see this game improve and iterate on its currently brilliant foundation. This is exactly what fast-paced single-player FPS should be.

I'm never listening to Jimmy Champane ever again.
Please remove the generative AI images, and the voices, and you get my money

Also, make it truly offline so I can play on my Steam Deck while out and about.

Genuinely floored.
This game is what 'This is the Police' should have been. I cannot wait for the full release, and so down for the story cause it looks fantastic.

TL;DR:
A relaxing and visually charming gamified productivity app that blends lofi music, focus tools, and customisation, though it could benefit from more personalisation options and broader visual appeal.

---

Review:
Spirit City: Lofi Sessions provides a unique way to stay productive by combining task management tools like Pomodoro timers and to-do lists with a soothing lofi soundtrack and customisable digital space. Its standout feature is its ability to create a "zen zone" for users, whether on a second monitor or running in the background. Earning XP and unlocking spirits adds a fun gamified element, making productivity feel rewarding.

Visually, the app is polished, with cosy animated soundscapes like falling snow or crackling fires that perfectly complement the lofi beats. While the customisation options for avatars and decor are enjoyable, they feel somewhat limited, relying heavily on palette swaps. Additionally, the promotional materials lean heavily on a pink and frilly aesthetic, which doesn’t fully align with the app’s otherwise gender-neutral vibe.

The app performs reliably, with updates consistently improving its features and stability. However, it could benefit from expanded personalisation options and more varied content to keep users engaged long-term.

---

Recommendation:
Spirit City: Lofi Sessions is ideal for those looking to enhance focus or reduce stress with a cosy and interactive environment. If you enjoy lofi music, light gamification, and customisation, it’s a delightful addition to your daily routine. While not perfect, its charm and functionality make it a worthwhile tool for productivity enthusiasts.

TL;DR:
GRIP tries to deliver fast-paced combat racing but stumbles with broken physics, inconsistent difficulty, and a poorly designed power-up system that ultimately detracts from the experience.

---

Review:
GRIP: Combat Racing sets itself up as a thrilling, chaotic combat racer with 11 campaign tiers, each with escalating challenges. A few standout moments, such as the dynamic satellite obstacle on Signal Static bring a sense of excitement, and some tracks, like SAAT Coast, feature genuinely impressive environmental design. However, these brief highlights are overshadowed by the game's mechanical issues.

The deeper you go into the campaign, the more the gameplay falls apart. By tier six, the difficulty curve becomes unpredictable, with "easy" races sometimes feeling disproportionately hard and "hard" races occasionally feeling simple. The real problem is the game's unreliable physics, which makes controlling your vehicle feel inconsistent. For instance, in Signal Static, there’s a section where you must drive up onto a roof. Falling off always results in a reset, but the game respawns you in a position that doesn’t give you enough momentum to recover and drive back up. This forces you to restart the entire race.

The power-up system compounds the issue. Like any combat racing game, there are power-ups scattered throughout the track, but the game mishandles their distribution and design. You can pick up any item at any point in the race, regardless of whether you’re in first or last place. This randomness, combined with the fact that you can’t see which power-up you’re about to collect (unlike in Blur, where power-ups are clearly visible), leads to frustrating moments where you might pick up something completely useless when you need it most. This system takes two incompatible elements from Blur and Mario Kart, getting any item regardless of your standing in the race and an inability to see the pickups, without incorporating the complementary systems that make them work in their original games. In Blur, visibility of power-ups allows for strategic planning, while Mario Kart balances item randomness by giving you better items if you’re further behind. GRIP tries but misses the mark by failing to create the necessary balance.

Track design is another area where the game struggles. Maps like Atlas Station beckon you toward power-ups but penalize you with out-of-bounds resets for attempting to collect them, and invisible walls on many tracks, such as Acrophobia, inconsistently block areas of the map, leading to moments where you unexpectedly fly off the course. These design flaws make the racing feel chaotic, but not in the fun, unpredictable way you might expect from a combat racer. Instead, it feels like you’re fighting the game’s design more than your opponents.

The soundtrack, consisting mostly of repetitive drum and bass tracks, wears thin quickly. While the music fits the game's tone, hearing the same style of track over and over makes it tedious. Console players have no option to change the soundtrack, which only exacerbates this issue. While the game does allow custom music on PC, this doesn’t excuse the lack of variety and depth in the original soundtrack. The music should enhance the experience, not make you wish you could turn it off.

Ultimately, GRIP feels like a game that’s trying to be something it’s not. While it boasts a few impressive visual environments, the mechanical issues and frustrating power-up system hold it back from being an enjoyable experience.

---

Recommendation:
With its inconsistent mechanics, unbalanced power-up system, and frustrating track designs, I can’t recommend GRIP, even to fans of combat racers.

TL;DR:
A beautifully crafted narrative experience with unique card mechanics and engaging political intrigue. However, its reliance on long stretches of unvoiced text and inconsistent player interaction may make it less accessible to those who prefer a more involved and interactive storytelling experience.

---

Review:
The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood wasn’t directly recommended to me, it was suggested to my brother, and I decided to check it out after seeing the trailer. The game’s art, music, and the concept of building your own Tarot cards immediately caught my eye. It reminded me of when Disco Elysium was first recommended to me: it didn’t seem like my kind of game at first, but it ended up being something I enjoyed greatly once I gave it a chance.

The game excels at creating a rich and atmospheric world, with stunning visuals, a compelling soundtrack, and innovative mechanics that make it distinct. The political intrigue and the choices that influence the narrative are among the most engaging aspects. The game shines when it allows you to steer conversations, explore character backstories, and feel like your decisions matter. These moments are where the game feels most rewarding.

However, the pacing and structure often left me feeling disconnected. I went in expecting a shorter, more concise experience, maybe two to three hours, but found out later that the main story is about seven and a half hours long, with completionist playthroughs extending up to eleven and a half. This longer-than-anticipated playtime combined with the frequent stretches of unvoiced text felt overwhelming, particularly in sections where the game leaned heavily into narrative without offering much player interaction.

While the game includes interactive dialogue choices, they aren’t always consistent. There are moments when you get to click through dialogue choices and steer the conversation, adding flavour and depth, but there are also long segments where you’re simply reading without any immediate input. This created a push and pull dynamic, moments of engagement were often followed by periods of passive reading, which made the experience feel less interactive and more like a book at times.

Voice acting could have helped alleviate this disconnect by adding another layer of immersion, but it’s not the core issue. The real key to enhancing the experience would be more consistent player interaction, frequent opportunities to make choices, even if just for flavour. Games like Disco Elysium and Fallout New Vegas constantly engage the player by offering dialogue options at almost every turn, keeping you involved in the conversation. The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood has these moments but often spaces them out, making the player feel disconnected during longer, uninterrupted text segments.

This approach isn’t necessarily wrong; it fits the style of narrative the game aims to deliver. The lack of immediate feedback from choices can feel less engaging during a first playthrough but adds depth to the narrative, allowing consequences to unfold gradually and enhancing replayability. This design choice creates a unique experience where the full impact of your decisions isn’t always apparent until later, encouraging you to revisit the game and explore new paths.

I recognise this creates a contradictory feeling: on one hand, I appreciate the delayed impact of choices for adding replay value, but on the other, it makes the initial experience feel less engaging because the stakes aren’t immediately clear. For me, the game is brilliantly crafted for the audience it’s designed for, but it didn’t always align with my preferences. The strength of The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood is in its slow-burn storytelling and deep replayability, which makes it an intriguing game to come back to when I’m ready to fully engage on its terms.

---

Recommendation:
The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood is a beautifully crafted game that excels in world-building, art, and music, with a unique approach to narrative through its card-crafting mechanics. It’s perfect for those who enjoy text-heavy, story-driven experiences and are willing to dive deep into a world that doesn’t constantly hold your hand with frequent choices or voice acting. However, if you prefer more interactive storytelling with consistent player input and voice acting, you may find the pacing challenging. Despite my personal struggles, it’s a game I plan to revisit when I’m ready to engage with it on its own terms. It’s a thoughtfully designed experience that deserves recognition, even if it’s not perfectly tailored to every player’s tastes.

TL;DR:
A prequel that captures the spirit of Road 96 with great worldbuilding and unique gameplay elements but ultimately falls short due to its predictable narrative.

---

Review:
Road 96: Mile 0 offers an engaging experience with a story that's endearing and enjoyable, especially for fans of the original. The game is set a few months before Road 96, focusing on Zoe, a character players already know well, and Kaito, a new character with his own complex backstory. While Zoe starts off in a privileged environment, shielded from the harsh realities of Petria, Kaito comes from a background marked by hardship and rebellion. The game allows players to shape these characters' perspectives, making them question their beliefs or stay firmly aligned with their origins. This dynamic adds depth to both characters, especially as they navigate their contrasting worlds.

Spoilers Ahead

However, the story's central conflict (who ends up with the classified government documents) feels less impactful, given that players of Road 96 already know Zoe eventually gets them. The predictability surrounding these documents weakens the narrative tension and undermines the emotional stakes of the journey, leaving the ending feeling a bit flat.

A more compelling approach might have explored the complexities of Zoe and Kaito's relationship, leading to a pivotal choice for Kaito: sacrificing himself or his parents to ensure Zoe gets the documents. This choice could have added significant emotional weight, enhancing the player's connection to both characters and explaining their actions in Road 96. Instead, the predictable outcome limits the potential impact of the story.

End of Spoilers

Despite this, Mile 0 has its strengths. The rhythm-based musical sequences, which reflect the characters' inner conflicts and emotions, are a standout feature. These segments are visually striking, fun, and come with an engaging soundtrack, though they can feel a bit clunky at times. Fortunately, they are skippable, so they don’t disrupt the game’s overall pacing.

While Mile 0 expands the universe and adds more backstory, its reliance on a known outcome feels like a missed opportunity. The game shines when it focuses on the characters' personal growth and the unique mechanics, but the central narrative is constrained by its prequel nature, offering less of a surprise for those familiar with the original.

---

Recommendation:
Mile 0 is worth playing for fans of Road 96 who want to explore more of its world, but be prepared for a story that may not deliver the same level of surprise or emotional impact as the original.

TL;DR:
An unforgettable journey with an incredible atmosphere and soundtrack; a standout experience from a small team.

---

Review:
Road 96 left a lasting impression on me, mainly due to its captivating atmosphere and fantastic soundtrack. I went in expecting a short adventure, but I found myself wishing it would never end. The game's dynamic storytelling and variety of encounters kept things fresh and engaging throughout.

The procedural nature of the game means you never experience the same scenes in the same order, and there are moments in New Game Plus that you won’t encounter on your first playthrough. I really loved this aspect, as it kept the experience feeling new and exciting each time.

The soundtrack, again, I can't reiterate enough, is wonderful to listen to and perfectly complements the journey. Road 96 is a monumental achievement from a small team that delivers an emotionally resonant and unique gaming experience.

---

Recommendation:
I wholeheartedly recommend Road 96 for anyone looking for a story-driven road trip adventure that combines great music, atmosphere, and compelling storytelling. It’s a journey worth taking.

TL;DR:
A deeply engaging narrative experience with well-written characters and fantastic voice acting, perfect for fans of story-driven games.

---

Review:
When I first played Tell Me Why upon its release in 2020, I enjoyed the story and found the characters compelling, but I didn’t fully grasp some of the nuances, particularly around Tyler's journey. Revisiting it in 2024, with a better understanding, I’ve noticed many more subtle details in the characters and their interactions that I initially missed. The writing remains as strong as ever, and the voice acting continues to be phenomenal, bringing Tyler and Alyson to life in an authentic and engaging way.

My only gripe is with the letters revealed at the end, which felt like an overwhelming dump of exposition, almost like sifting through a goblin's hoard of information. Despite this, the game offers a richly crafted story that draws you in and keeps you invested from start to finish.

I also appreciated the clever nod to DON'T NOD's previous games, where, at one point, posters subtly reference Remember Me, Life is Strange, and Vampyr. It was a fun Easter egg for fans of their earlier titles.

---

Recommendation:
I highly recommend Tell Me Why to fans of narrative-driven games. It's an emotional and compelling journey with layers of meaning that become even richer upon revisiting.