Recent reviews by Xaintrix

What a wonderful game. No microtransactions, and while this is based more on Chinese mahjong than Japanese Riichi, the parallels are enough that the transition was seamless.

Nice character designs and they all play so differently. Absolutely addicted. It plays well on Steam Deck and at time of review no crashes or input issues. I would note that the buttons to use or sell tributes (consumables) is too small on the Deck but I got used to it quickly.

I have unlocked only 6/21 current characters, but they all feel rewarding to play. What I like is that each is suited to a particular type of hand(s) so it gently nudges me to try those play styles. Something no other mahjong game has done yet aside from doujin titles.

Funny enough the lack of sex actually makes this a much more enjoyable experience. Sure you have bouncing characters but it’s not so egregious and the outfits not so skimpy that I don’t mind recommending it to my friends.

As it is right now, I can’t recommend. The boss armor bar mechanic is awful. It’s a shame as I like many of the characters! The chambers can get tough with all the attacks flying everywhere and that’s fine. The grind? Fine. Boss being a dps check without the tools to get there? I killed the stage 1 boss once. After a few more runs where the characters had no way of getting the job done? By orders of magnitude? No thanks.

An incredible masterpiece of a true roguelike. A very unique alien world that is filled with excitement and exploration. It's a ruthless violent world, but if you persist, learn, live, and drink, it will reward you in ways very very few games can. I've played the gamut, Rogue, Nethack, Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, and so forth. Nothing has felt more like a true labor of love than this game.

Be a cybernetic cyber samurai, a 10 limb monstrosity, your favorite X-Men, or more. I haven't ran into a game that does open world truly right like this. It's also one of the few roguelikes where permadeath doesn't bother me. And if it does bother you they put in multiple types of modes so you can get the full experience tailored to your tolerances.

Normally I could write up details on each aspect of a game and why I love it, but unlike other reviews I've given I just want to keep playing more instead.

What an extremely fun game! More voice acting than I anticipated and for me at least entertaining given that things take place in MMBN like dungeons. Each card is voiced and sometimes even patters with others. Makes it so much more vibrant.

Still in the early stages but I did play the demo before. There are neat layers to the game play as you on one hand need to dodge or counter enemies all the while positioning yourself to inflict damage. A few different builds I’m seeing too. At the very least I will be playing well past the refund window and don’t feel like it’s a waste so far.

Sad I don’t even have an hour in before writing this but saw footage before too. This work of passion is right in my wheelhouse and can’t help but give positive support. Also runs fine on Steam Deck!

So happy to have this in English and through a US store. Plays great, love the cast so far, and no major issues to speak of. The Premium Sound Pack really does enhance the experience, as pricey as it is.

Absolutely excellent kingdom simulator taking me back to the BBS Door days - if it had all the content I ever wanted. Already worth the price, sale or not, and more refinements by the developer to come. The mostly text interface may not be for those looking for the shiniest bloom effects, but those looking for a good core game will be very pleased.

EXTREMELY RESPONSIVE DEVELOPER might I add. Not only in the form of frequent updates, but frequent COMMUNICATION with the players and discussion forums. Does that mean everything is implemented? Of course not, it's their game, but so many features and ideas have been incorporated that it's something we desperately need in this sea of tone deaf AAA devs.

I rarely buy Early Access titles anymore, I only get them now if the game is in a state that's enjoyable as-is. This is one of the very very few.

Summary: My Favorite Economic Board Game Comes to Digital

Edit Notes: I'm doing a full teardown of my initial review that documented initial release errors. For full disclosure, on launch there were a number of interface issues that made the game unplayable. Within a few days the devs came through on fixes that resolved the bulk of our issues.

Ever wanted to feel like a stock trader? Wheel and deal with the best of them inside of 20-40 minutes? Then Stockpile is the game for you. There are videos out there that detail the order of play way better than I can for the traditional game.

With 4 players, the game is played over 6 rounds where everyone has only a piece of the economic forecast puzzle. From there you use that to value various stockpiles and get into a bidding war over them! Will your stocks go up, down, or will you get your hands dirty in manipulating the market?

Very very robust AI where even Medium can smash me up pretty well. With more people? The action gets even crazier.

Highly recommend.

Excellent Roguelike with a great user experience aesthetic. Robust keyboard and mouse controls, traditional Rogueish ASCII visual mode with more user friendly tiles for those of us who can't remember our squiggly lines anymore from the days of playing Rogue and Nethack.

What's refreshing is that this isn't yet another swords and sorcery adventure, and instead you're scrapping your way out of a robotics facility after gaining some bit of self control. There's ton of lore to be found, and the developer is accessible, responsive, and yet not afraid to stick to his vision of what he wants the game to be. Very respectable and part of why I jumped on this game though I'm super wary of any Early Access title nowadays.

This game is feature rich as-is and completely enjoyable in its current state.

If you're on the fence, I highly recommend jumping on YouTube for playthroughs. For the developer just search for "Grid Sage Games" and "nuzcraft" is another source for narrated and informative gameplay. On sale it was a no-brainer, but this is one of the few games I would pay full price too.

It does have a bit of a learning curve, though the exploration of how the world works is part of the fun. Play it, then check elsewhere for resources. There's a manual, gameplay examples, and some helpful fans too out there.

NOTES: Read the warnings at the bottom of the Steam description (expand it). The developer has been very transparent about certain unforgiving elements both in gameplay and system needs. The game is wonderfully small at just under 50MB, but you do need a sizable display/monitor to play the game as intended. It may not be a game for everyone (what game is?), but it's a very rewarding game if you give it a chance.

Hack the Planet!!

I was a fan of Uplink back in the day, but it is certainly time for a modern quality release! I streamed Hacknet for 5 hours the other night and we had a great time experiencing what the world had to offer. You would think I rocketed through the game faster, but honestly much of the time was spent messing around in servers and poking around. The intuitive gameplay, explorable content, and the way the game handles failure made for a really enjoyable experience.

One thing I enjoyed was how intiutive everything was. This isn't linux, this isn't MS-DOS, this isn't even hacking per se. It's an adventure game with a command line interface. Hacking concepts and tools are abstracted for playablilty though it should be noted that there are some real hacking suites out there that are scarily easier to use then what you find in the game.

I'd love to go into details about the exciting things I found, but half of the fun is exploring. One big suggestion I have is to read through the help command in your OS - all 3 pages. Your HacknetOS has a lot of functionality that you wouldn't normally expect. The commands can also let you have a lot of fun! I had a ball changing some IRC logs and websites to include my viewers names to much embarassment and laughs.

An aspect I appreciated is that the punishment for making mistakes is firm but fair. Going into too much detail would be spoiling, but suffice it to say don't just get cozy clicking on the GUI for everything you do. Know your commands and they will treat you well in return.

I did encounter a few minor bugs, some graphic glitches dealing with text, however none were game breaking and I documented this information back to the company. At the stage I'm at in the game there were no hardware upgrades, but I have uncovered a number of hacking tools to provide alternate forms of entry into more difficult servers.

I'm happy to share more of my experience with you, or if you'd like just stop by the channel to see it in action.

DISCLAIMER: I was provided a pre-relase copy of the game by Surprise Attack Games with no additional compensation or influence. Heck I like the game so much I'm picking up a copy to give away to my viewers. :)


EDIT: After a few more streams of the game, and now about 15 more hours spent with Hacknet I'm still loving the experience The universe is solid, with some very interesting servers you encounter that make homages to pop culture and game references in some instances. The banter logs are proabably my favorite things to hunt down as it makes it feel a little more real that people are using these boxes.

As for those miffed about me talking about my stream? I respect your thumbs down, but potential buyers got to see Hacknet in action and it helped them make a purchasing decision (lots of YES!). Totally worth it.