Recent reviews by samsonium

This is a pretty neat game about the challenges of balancing climate change. Some concepts and mechanisms are a little difficult to fully grasp, but you will get the hang of it on easy mode without too many problems. The hard mode is where things get challenging. It's got some curious music and a distinctive yet charming art style. The most important thing to take away is the complex and multi-variable aspect of dealing with climate change challenges.

It's a symbolized transportation management simulator, which can be mesmerizing as you watch passengers transit through your system. As an idea it has a lot of potential but the "end-game" and/or "skill ceiling" revolves around an unrealistic, constant re-arranging of metro lines to relieve the most congested hub, instead of letting a incrementally designed and optimized system run until it breaks. Stations also appear randomly, when it might have been more interesting if there was more rhyme and reason to them, like something more natural of a city's growth and expansion. Still, it's a minimalistic puzzle game that you can relax to as long as you're content to not remotely challenging the leaderboards and you don't mind short levels before your system is overwhelmed.

This is a quality game for the price of free. While there aren't many plot-changing decisions to make, it is made up for by the tons of tactical decisions you will have to make in the battlefield of space. A rewarding level of challenge is also available if you're the masochistic type. But it's the art, story, and dialogue that really make this game shine on top of the unique blend of visual novel and tactical RPG backed by an engaging and dynamic soundtrack. There isn't much nudity (which is actually my preference, but I know I'm in the minority), although an official patch exists for additional content.

Professor Layton meets The X-Files in this brief 5-hour puzzle adventure game. While the graphics are not your latest AAA blockbuster, they are endearing and suffice in conveying the in-game events. The puzzles aren't very challenging and, sadly, don't increase in difficulty as the game progresses, except in short, side puzzles. The writing, quirky humor, and horror are well balanced and act together to drive intrigue in the storyline. However, the spot-on voice acting is what completes the game, adding a nice depth to the characters' personas.

One of the best games I have ever played. It shares a lot of design principles and features of the Half-Life series. Like Half-Life, there is a silent protagonist and no narration but subtle hints of what to do next are presented. It's dark, it's ambiently dynamic, and it doesn't tell a story but shows the player instead. The game is a mix of physics-based puzzles and action sequences. It will genuinely scare you and give you adrenaline rushes. It will get in your head and use psychology against you. Prepare to die many times in gruesome and dramatic fashions but it helps make a 5-hour game feel much longer.

At times, more engrossing and more difficult than going to school for engineering.