Recent reviews by Vante

Respect the classics.

I really enjoyed Frostpunk, it scratches a particular post-apocalyptic sim-city itch. It feels like a worker placement boardgame where there are things you must do, things you want to do, but never enough resources to do them. There is always pressure to expand, you're constantly evaluating priorities and risk vs reward. Seeing a plan come together is satisfying. You want to build some factories? You need more wood. More wood means more workers. More workers need both homes and food. And you know a crisis is just around the corner. Do you play it safe and hold back some resources, or build the thing that would benefit you right now?

This game is bleak. Not as bleak as This War of Mine, but far darker than other city builders. Each step forward gets you closer to solving the problems at hand. There's usually an optimal path, but there are enough balanced decisions to keep things interesting. Both tyrant and saint are rewarding.

After beating the core game, there are several scenarios and DLCs that add quite a bit of replayability.

if you enjoyed the constant pressure and threat in Frostpunk, you might enjoy Against the Storm. it's a supply chain game, where you're trying to grow and satisfy several different anthropomorphic species. But you don't have access to every building every game, so it plays differently each time. it's repetitive but I enjoy it. There's an overarching campaign, lots of lore but not much story.

This is a classic economic simulator, but the terribly dated graphics and fiddly micromanagement make it unenjoyable. There are many more rewarding games to play than this.

If you liked previous borderlands, if you like looting, if you can stand over the top crude humor that occasionally strays into funny, if you enjoy solid coop gameplay, get this immediately.

An enjoyable twist on Stardew Valley.

Good deck building mechanic. As with all roguelikes, the randomness is essentially an excuse for poor game balance. Some runs will be incredibly easy and others will be near impossible. If you can get past that, a fun game awaits.

Dungeon warfare is a really solid TD game. Solid like tight, like the spike trap deals 1 damage, a peasant mob has 3 health, clean numbers like that. The map is a clear grid, no wishywashy anywhere you want stuff. Pixel art and sound are fine. Intro music is boss. Leveling up system is alluring. Lots of maps, lots of challenge modifiers to revisit maps at later levels. Nice variety of trap types and monster types. Really enjoyable gameplay overall.

A fun topdown shooter with clear influence from Crimsonland. strikes a good balance between tactical and chaotic. Plenty to blow up, the graphics are decent. The cyberpunk asthetic gets old pretty quick. One annoyance is the sound effect for doors opening and closing sounds like a melee attack.

The challenge progression is a mixed bag. Some classes of guns/abilities/perks feel obviously superior to others. The game rewards cautious play. The randomly generated levels are sufficient.

I would love to see this online multiplayer.

A fun game to teach your kids the basic concepts of evolution.