Recent reviews by Suri

This is an excellent game! Captures the feel of climbing better than anything else I've played. Any game with camping also gets a +1 from me. :D

Against the Storm is one of the very best games ever created. I have hundreds of games in my Steam library, and if I had to pick 1 single game to play for the rest of my life, it would be Against the Storm with almost no competition. I have never simped as hard for a game, as I am about to in this review.

Other survival city builders (which I also love) often run into the problem of being 'solved' after you spend enough time with them. You know what you need to build, and in what order, and then you've usually more or less got things under control. Against the Storm's drafting and random resource nodes make every game an unknown challenge. The difficulty can be set high enough to consistently challenge even veteran players, and it simply never gets old. Pushing the prestige difficulties feels super rewarding.

The new player experience is perfect. The way the game introduces new mechanics over time does an amazing job of easing new players into a rather complex game. The number of quality of life features in the UI (more of which have been added, frequently) is superb; all game designers should be studying the interface options in this game.

The constant time crunch is oppressive in the best way, doing an amazing job of keeping the tension high. The horrible cello(?) sound effect that plays when a race's resolve is too low, is horrible in the best way.

I could keep going, but it would probably be redundant at this point. I do not have a single bad thing to say about this game. I really don't. I've thought about it often while playing and of course while writing this review, and I truly think that this is just a perfect game. 12 out of 10 and I can't wait for the DLC coming out later this month.

I thought I had already reviewed this masterpiece of a game. My bad!

Post DLC Update: I still stand behind this review. Honestly more impressive that they've managed to add new species and rebalance things around them, and managed not to screw things up. I have way more salt than I will ever use though; what are people spending all this salt on?

I love this sort of turn-based city building genre, and this game is a challenging, well designed example of it. I had already been enjoying it, but the patch from the developer today directly addressing community feedback proved that this going to be an enduring gem of a game, and worthy of a review. :)

Also the name is brilliant. Genius.

This game is the evolution of Cultist Simulator mechanics and design that I hoped for. I've been telling my friends that it feels like Weather Factory figured out their game systems in Cultist Simulator and used that foundation to build a much more realized game world with Book of Hours.

I was definitely slow-playing my first run, but it took me 52 hours to get my first major victory. I thoroughly enjoyed the first 51 of those hours (see below for what happened for that last hour), and am already looking forward to subsequent runs.

The writing and world-building is excellent, and more of what I have come to love and expect from AK. The sense of discovery I got from the crafting system, and the thrill of unlocking new rooms for the first time was probably the primary appeal at first. Later on, finally feeling like I had mastered some of the game systems was extremely satisfying.

Side-note:: although it doesn't really seem in line with what we've seen from Weather Factory so far, a "rogue-like" DLC that somehow generates a library with a semi-random room layout would be AMAZING for super-long-term replayability. I expect the game as-is can give me a couple hundred hours though, so this should not be seen as a complaint. :D

The game is very good. Exceptionally good. You should buy this if it appeals to you in any way. You should ABSOLUTELY buy this if you enjoyed Cultist Simulator.

I'll end with my 1 single gameplay complaint, which I have seen echoed on various forums: I spent the last hour of my run doing nothing but accelerating time waiting for the semi-random appearance of a special season (Numa) in order to finish my victory. I felt that this really took away from the climax of the game. After 50+ hours spent exploring the house and working towards this victory, I performed the final difficult crafting recipe somewhat expecting to see an immediate victory screen. Instead I then sat there watching the years tick by, praying for Numa. If I could change 1 thing about the game, it would 100% be this.

Edit:: Oh my god, I just went and read a couple other user reviews, and realize that I COMPLETELY forgot that the moor existed after the first hour. Oof. Something to make use of next run. :D

The Excavation of Hob's Barrow was a delightful surprise! I saw it on my store feed, and sorta impulse bought it based on the art, and wanting to play something spooky in spooktober. The story was engaging from the get-go, the writing was good, and the voice acting was actually superb! The game took me just over 8 hours to complete, but I got stuck at a couple silly points that probably added an hour over most people. I thought those 8 hours were well worth my time, and I'm very glad I found this game.

The game is generally eerie, but not actually spooky for the most part, until near the very end. In the earlier parts of the game, the spookiness comes mostly from knowing that something bad is going to happen. But aside from the sometimes ominous music, nothing overly unusual is occurring. There were some mysterious happenings that went unresolved, but I am missing some Steam achievements, so perhaps I missed them.

I thought the pacing was a little off at times, and either the 2nd or 3rd day has you doing some fairly tedious fetch tasks that I didn't feel added anything to the game. That day could have been almost entirely removed I think, to the game's benefit.

All that said though, if you're reading this review you should probably play Hob's Barrow. :)

I really liked Suzerain, and my only complaint is that it wasn't long enough. I thought the game could have gotten even more interesting if it hadn't ended when it did.

It's a fancy, immersive, choose-your-own-adventure game. I found it very immersive personally; by the end of my term I knew all the cities and provinces of my country, and what their main concerns were. I knew a dozen or so well developed characters, and had a good understanding of what made them tick. The choices are not trivial, and the consequences of your choices rarely feel arbitrary: my best friend took his own life... and I'd be lying if I didn't see that coming before making the choices I did. The game is very good at making to stop and think long and hard about your choices, which you will still sometimes feel awful for making.

It challenges you to stick to your values, and then pushes you to see how far you're willing to go to do so. I think I was a good leader, but definitely a flawed one. Honestly though, is state control of the media any worse than Rupert Murdoch control of the media? The people can't really be trusted to think critically on their own.

This is a fun, challenging time of a game. Combat is entertaining: flying circles around enemies in an interceptor feels great until it's suddenly erased by surprise proximity shells. The strategic map feels like some sort of FTL x Silent Hunter mashup: moving between different cities, trying to progress, while evading enemy radar and strike groups.

If you're into building your own ships, there does seem to be quite a bit in the way of customisation. I'm sure it's possible to make some fairly balance breaking craft, but I haven't spent much time in the editor.

My only gripe is that I think the tutorials don't do a complete job of introducing game mechanics, for things such as missiles and aircraft carriers. There's youtube for that though if you need it.

Crabs have 10 legs.
Squid? Only 8.

I don't finish many games, so when I do it probably means it's worth a review: Darkwood is a masterpiece and you should play it.

Typically I do not play spooky games; I would like to, but I don't usually make it far before chickening out. Darkwood took me 3 tries at playing it before I managed to stick with it to the end. The first two times I was sufficiently creeped out by the forest and the game's SUPERB sound design (there was one ambient sound in a building, that always sounded like someone was tapping on the door to my IRL office. I did not like that) that I couldn't bring myself to go on, but both times I knew that I would want to return.

The forest of Darkwood is full of mysteries. So many mysteries that there were many that I didn't figure out during my playthrough, and will probably end up watching on Youtube to fully appreciate. Every NPC has a story, and one that you take a very active role in shaping. I can't think of another game that manages such organic decision making, as Darkwood. NPCs will occasionally give you tasks to complete in order to advance the story, but there is no point in the game where you have to actually do what they tell you to. There are always alternatives. In fact in most cases, you could just kill them. Speaking of which: I have also never played a game that made me feel as much of a monster for my own voluntary actions, as this game. I don't normally play a 'bad-guy' in games, and I definitely did not set out to be a 'bad-guy' in Darkwood, but I ate Grandma alive and that ♥♥♥♥ is going to stick with me for a while.

The first half of the game follows the Survival Horror formula of pitting you against dangerous enemies, with limited dwindling resources, and combat mechanics that really don't make you feel like an action hero. Rewards for combat are minimal, and the costs can be great, so avoiding combat wherever you can seemed like the smart play. Combined with the day-night cycle putting you under constant time-pressure, it always felt like I was just barely surviving each day. If I have a single negative thing to say about this game, it's that the 2nd half of the game seemed to largely do away with this feeling. I suddenly felt like I had too many resources, and just went all out on the now more numerous and aggressive enemies.

My playthrough of Darkwood took me around 14 hours, and I left a lot of stones unturned. I imagine a completionist first-playthrough could take a good 20 - 30 hours depending on playstyle. I came out of the game not entirely understanding what just happened, and I love that feeling. If you like Eastern European style despair, and feel like exploring a mysterious world rich with lore that is very responsive to your choices, you will probably love Darkwood.

Also: when was the last time a 2D game frightened you?

After this many game hours, I should probably review Battle Brothers. I don't have much experience with the newest DLC (Blazing Deserts at the time of writing), so won't be touching on that. I have played the vast majority of my time on the medium tactical and strategic difficulties, with Ironman on. This is a brilliant game. Infuriating and heartbreaking at times, but still brilliant. :D

This is a sandbox game in which you manage a small mercenary company. Usually you will field up to 12 combatants at a time and combat plays out in a familiar hex-based, turn-based manner. Your people are not special. They have no stats or abilities that enemies do not, any will die just as easily as those enemies. You absolutely cannot win every fight the game throws at you, and have to pick your battles. Even if you can win a fight, often times it isn't worth it. Your people require daily pay and food and your gear consumes resources to repair. If no one is paying you to fight that group of Goblins it might be better to avoid them.

Combat is all dice-roll based; attacks have a % chance to succeed so combat is often a matter of playing the odds especially in the early game. An interesting product of the game systems in Battle Brothers, is that the game is much more RNG dependant in the early game: when characters are lightly armoured or unarmoured, 1 or 2 nasty hits can change the entire battle. Once the player is more heavily armoured in the mid-late game, the randomness starts to smooth out since characters can take multiple hits without immediately suffering for it. In the early game, an unlucky crossbow bolt can straight-up kill your up-and-coming archer.

Despite the frustration that can come with a series of bad rolls, combat feels very refined. Between the fatigue system, defensive options such as shield walls and spear walls, mid-game battles between 2 human armies can be a slow strategic affair of gradually wearing your opponent down. Contrast that with some of the scarier enemies that rush forward without armour but with the ability to quickly maim your entire army, where my strategy quickly becomes 'kill it, kill it, oh god kill it faster', and there is quite a variety in combat.

The game has a quite a bit of exploration and discovery to offer. Once you have a bit of breathing room economically, you have the option to venture into the unexplored wilderness to find and loot enemy sites, and discover unique locations. There are rare and challenging monsters to encounter (I have never killed a Lindwurm. Bad, I know, but after a couple terrifying encounters I just avoid them now) each with their own unique quirks that will force you to drastically alter your tactics. If you're like me, playing on Ironman, that means you just die the first time you encounter Necrosavants or Alps. Or anything honestly. It's a hard game and I'm still bad at it.