Recent reviews by ECE94FSR

It looks and feels like a retro graphics Super Smash Bros. with a steeper learning curve and a smaller rooster of characters (18 currently I think), but with the support of mods to increase its potential content. It differs to something like Brawlhalla that its got more content and that the characters actually feel very unique and not numerous clones limited by their weapons. Of course it isn't free like Brawlhalla so comparison is just the gameplay differences.
Its fast paced and becomes better when you start to understand the mechanics and then also becomes a lot less sluggish. They have made a great tutorial section with all the basics aswell as covering all the mechanics of the different characters. Honestly I can't recall ever seeing such an indepht tutorial for any game. A very good decision by the devs.
The music is quite nice and I also like a lot of the stages designs aswell as the characters.
There are some different gamemodes available:
You have a practice mode to further hone your skills. There is online ranked competitive play. You have classic free for all and team fights locally. You can switch controller settings an link them to a profile name.
Storymode is great and you can even add in a friend with local coop drop-in.
Abyssmode is an alright mode and challenge to beat waves and bosses.
I haven't played "tetherball" so I cant say much about that. Game has good amount of content and customization and they have really succeeded with getting characters to play and feel unique.
Controls are pretty tight and I feel quite clunky when I play the game. Some of the tutorial I had to look up on how to do and I think for some of them I had to use the keyboard since it was too difficult to pull it off with a controller (Xbox One Controller). I think the game overall is a little bit too hard to be recommended to the most casual people, but its definately learnable if you spend enough time.
Rivals of Aether is great game and even if I didn't enjoy it as much as other games I would still give it a 8/10. In its current state with no dlc characters needed to be bought seperately with the addition of 4 more characters and its various game modes its value has increased. With other good games available at 9:99€ without a sale i would recommend getting the Steam version of Rivals of Aether at 9:99-19:99€ a little under its full price (24:99€).
//ECE//

GG Extreme is one of the most difficult games I've 100%. I was looking for a game like "Mashed Fully Loaded" and with similarity to the movie series "Death Race" but was a bit dissapointed at first tbh. My issue was that it took way to much to destroy the cars unless you were playing on easy. The graphics and overall design felt spot on. Moving forward I picked up the game again and went for the 100% and impossible difficulty just felt too unfair to even have a chance at. Driving was hard enough, but losing a race because the ai rammed you and shot you to death like if I'm a bot from easy mode just felt too harsh. The biggest turn of events came when I learned about the hand brake. This is where a tutorial would've been nice. It turned out that if you slide using the handbrake you gain nitro while using the normal brakes doesnt or very little I can't honestly remember. I got a lot to thank the Steam community for where Veterans of the game gave me advice. After the handbrake nitro mechanic the game changed for the better. It was hard but very satisfying. The rubberbanding on the ai is strong so you'll rarely get far ahead.
Challenging and fun gameplay with great nitro-gain mechanic. There's Multiplayer and it also comes with the option to setup your own server. While I hardly played other vanilla modes than the campaign these modes are alright and can be very fun. There are battle modes and races available. The weapons, maps and cars are great and I have very little negative to say about the game, it does well both as a racing game and a combat game.
Lack of a good tutorial, I struggled without knowing about the nitro mechanic.

When it comes to achievements some of them glitched. Luckily I saved a backup after each race so when I didn't unlock beating all cups at impossible I reloaded and replayed the last race till it triggered so I would always recommend backing up your save on the campaign wheter you save-scum or not. The campaign can feel a bit unfair as you can die and then the bots will gain a lead which they can increase and make it too hard to get back and win a cup. They will eventually get better cars which means that you can by losing make your opponents harder and effectively need to restart the entire cup.
The ai at the highest difficulty was a bit too much RNG for an average player like me at certain times. Sometimes I would die after less than 30 seconds in a race since the other cars would gang up at me and do full 90 degree tackles and kill me. As mentioned earlier, the game is very good and these are really small and specific cons about the game.
I don't have the "Full Metal Frenzy" DLC but the "Full Metal Zombie" one.
What definately could be a hit or miss turned out to be a huge success. Shooting monsters/zombies and beating waves etc. was a lot more fun than expected. A great set of game modes I find to be a great addition to the game and I don't think there is anything bad I can say abouit this DLC.
I forgot to write this review initially and let it get pushed forward in time for way to long.
It is one of the my best 100% I have ever done and I would give it 9/10. I think it fits in the price range of 9:99-19:99€. The driving and vehicular combat is great with a solid variety in game modes and cars. It took me 70 hours to 100%.
//ECE//

SoD YOSE is quite different from other games I've played. Overall its open world and a zombie survival game. You can recruit and switch between characters and build up your shelters which you only can have one at a time and you have a set amount of places to chose from. There is some story which is quite alright and some darker tones improving on the experience of the setting. It looks alright graphically and the locations and how the game handles most things are great.
There's crafting, trading and drivable cars all helping in making the world feel somewhat more a live. You can also meet other survivors. Mostly exploring the story and moving on with the Breakdown dlcs is what I would consider the best. While repetitive the RNG and danger of the zombies really remedies the level of replayability. Most of the time I felt on edge because while they usually cant do much, an ordinary infected can in combination with an unexpected special zombie quickly create a very bad situation. Luckily you can bring other survivors with you and greatly increase your survivability.
Looting and scavenging keeps you engaged even if you mostly will do the same thing over and over again. They have a similar concept to Left For Dead with special infected with abilites and common normal infected who are a threat when in numbers or combined with specials. I like this approch and they make the survival far more interesting and challenging.
If you like the game the Breakdown dlc will probably become your favorite thing to play. It basically is a slightly different version of story mode with extraction resulting in moving to a new location and redoing the same thing again at a greater difficulty which you can do repeatedly. Each time resources will become harder to come by and enemies will become more challenging.
Then there´s the Lifeline dlc which isnt very enjoyable at all. They basically give you a big map with very limited ability to explore what appears to be a big addition to the game. If the base game could be unfair with glitches where zombies go through walls or ferals jump through and pin you down Lifeline is far worse. The main problem being that you are completely set up to lose if you don't know what's coming. Once I learned how to play it, it became very easy. When saving the civs I would molotov them to get the zombies away or simply drive over them otherwise I would most likely fail the mission. Defending a base wasnt too hard but could be trivialized by giving all of the soldiers grenade launchers. So except for grabbing some annoying achievements you would at best get some short campaign with alright story and subpar gameplay compared to the rest of the game.
I got this game for free from a random guy on Steams tnx to my ach. hunting buddy putting in a good word. It was one of the better games I've played even if it definately is a very repetitive game that won't suit all people. I would give it a solid 8/10. The innovative openworld survival gameplay counteracts the repetitiveness. As for the bugs and glitches they went from frustrating to being hilarious as they mostly created some odd situations. As for the price I thing its well worth 9:99 to 19:99€.
//ECE//

I have played a few rougelites that have all been well recieved. So far only "The Binding of Isaac Rebirth" has left me disappointed regarding reviews VS actual gameplay. My favorite still being Enter The Gungeon is what I reference to when I want a good game from this genre. Synthetik lands somewhere between the games. It requires skill but also has RNG dependant elements from my experience. Rather than a bunch of small rooms to fight there are a few floors per level before the boss of the respective floor. Its quite linear with the only choice being to increase or decrease the "terror level". Except for the final boss floor and the optional extra final floor, all three earlier floors have atleast two diffferent boss stages that can appear. When you beat the final boss you get the option to loop which means that you start from the beginning with all your gear but with stronger enemies and some of your gear/stats nerfed.
The enemy variety is alright, the weapons and items are quite large with further specialization through modkits, upgradekits and attachments. There are a total of eight different characters to play as and two from each class. Each have their benefits and disadvantages with some being better suited for different playstyles and requiring more skills than others. They also come with different stats meaning that they typically want you to focus on certain stats over others when upgrading yourself in an actual run.
One thing to note is that you aren't invurnerable when dodging except for one of the classes who can gain this ability.
There is enough variety and combinations to keep the game interesting for quite some time. It took me over 100 hours to fully beat the games achievements and there are still other modes I havent beaten aswell as unlocks left to do. There's a great value for money in this game and apart from the game being on the harder side of the difficulty spectrum it sure is satisfying to improve on the game. The mechanics are innovative and make the game unique.
Before you start you select a character and decide what you want to equip ranging from skill modules, to starting weapons. As you level up your characters they gain stronger perks and abilites. Beating the game with each character at a high enough difficulty rewards you with permanent bonuses that affect all of the characters. At level 25 the max level you can prestige your characters to further level them. The exp. gained is determinde by how far you got and your skill during that run. There are also exp. bonuses that can be applied temporary that you can earn depending on time and loggin bonuses. The same goes for data which is a currency used to upgrade stuff and is gained through leveling your characters and from runs.
The difficulty system is really well made. The difficulty level is displayed at a percentage and is affected by modifiers that you select that alter how the game plays. Here you will find one of the games most interesting aspects. When you fire you build up heat which scales differently with each weapon and cna work in synergy with various things you can also manually reload for bonuses or penalties. Keeping an eye on all of this thing while navigating gunfire in a fast paced game is what truly makes Synthetik a very good, challenging and satisfying game to play.
The design and graphics I woud say are highly individual so I stay neutral there. Normally I play these games with a controller but Synthetik felt much better with Kb an Mouse. I also found it useful to rebind keys for better access aswell.
I havent tried playing multiplayer but I bet its a great thing and definately a pro!
Being such a great game the negatives are mostly personal preference than actual issues. The RNG is the only negative except for some minor bugs with unreachable enemies and certain hitboxes. For some I could also guess that the skillceilling might be an issue if you actually want to complete the game with the rewards etc. otherwise the main problem is that some runs don't feel beatable with typically the issue being not able to dodge or run quick enough to survive attacks.
Its quite overwhelming att first and somethigns aren't that easy to figure out. I also recommend to not get stuck up on tierlists by youtubers etc. as limiting yourself to others opinion is bad. Self-dmg weapons can be very good so don't avoid them withiout giving them and their synergies a try.
Synthetik is a great roguelike that does really well in pretty much every aspect and has it own set of unique mechanics and gimmicks making it interesting. I would give it a 9/10 with the only negative being that RNG might kill your run. It can be a good thing but for me knowing that all runs I play are beatable is important and from my experience some situations can't be 100% beaten with skill alone.
As for the pricing I think its worth the full price but comparing it to games like EtG, Terraria etc. the 50% of at 9:99€ is the definitive sweetspot to buy this game.
//ECE//

This game is a park simulator (duh) with content inspired by both the old trilogy aswell as the new adaptation to the movie series.
I got the whole package from humblebundle and would not recommend it at the 90€+ asking price. It simply isn't worth it if you're not a diehard dino or Jurassic Park fan. Overall its quite a good game which atleast graphically is a tripple A game, while the overall content and gameplay being more on the average side.
The visuals are great as is the sound overall with the dinosaurs etc. It is easy to understand how the game works and after some trial and error and getting more used to the menus there aren't really any complex things to learn to enjoy the game. Managing the park is easy, while you can lose it isnt going to happen unless you handle the economy badly or get your visitors killed while short on cash. Challenge Mode is the sole exception for this.
As for the story I wouldn't call it anything special, but it provides a solid amount of game time which is good and some more interesting things to do than the normal contracts. With the dlcs you get some more variation in gameplay. The different dino dlc packs add more dinos to the already decent rooster.
There's a bug which causes keyboard and mouse to move by itself after a while. I managed to solve this by not using shift + tab in-game. Gameplay is very simple and repetitive and will probably become too boring for many to keep playing. The lines dropped by the cast from the series or contractors becomes quite annoying after some time. Challenge mode on Jurassic Park Difficulty and maybe even hard are RNG and can be lost if you don't get doable contracts.
Sometimes the ranger ai gets stuck and dinosaurs also act wierd. For instance in some rare instances they refuse to drink water and eat resulting in starvation. Other times they attack the fences even with 100% comfort, this can be remedied by tranqualizing them and transporting them back. As far as ai go the dinosaurs aren't in anyway impressive.
Game is a bit too simple in my opinion, it could use some more depth and bigger maps and buildings to make the building of your park more fun.

It took me a bit over 100 hours to beat the game. While most of the game loses much of its appeal in around 20 hours, it keeps you engaged with the grindy but simple gameplay. Giving you chores like dealing with storms, dinosaurs escaping and diseases/sabotage the game certainly becomes addicting and can make you easily spend a big chunk of time by keeping you engaged at almost all time. The graphics look great and I could only for the last few hours experience it at its best after getting a new PC setup.
At the end of the day I would give it 7/10 and only recommend it at 15-20€ at most with all or the required dlcs included to 100% the achievements if you are an achievement hunter. Otherwise you are probably better of just getting the basegame at a sale.
//ECE//

Is a zombie game that incorporates an "Open World" concept really well.
You have a lot of different challenges and things to do and two relatively huge maps to explore.
There are also collectibles and a well balanced amount of achievements for you to get if you like that.
You have a few different skill trees to level up and gain new abilities or better stats.
Its a first person game and has all sorts of weapons from melee weapons, guns, bows to special equipments with interesting properties.
There are a decent amount of different zombie types to encounter with special properties, some won't appear until later.
Humanoids like bandits also exit but aren't really that varied.
As the name suggests the nights are dangerous, but also reward you with double skill point gain.
Difficulty can be set and changed from "story mode" up to "nightmare" with several levels of difficulty inbetween.
Apart from stat changes nights are longer on higher difficulties.
Being a survival game it fits the zombie genre to have a crafting system.
As you scavenge resources from all sorts of places you will get more things available to craft when you have the required resources.
Some things you have to find blueprints for in order to craft.

The main story is pretty big and there are plenty of sidequests to keep you occupied.
There are some random minor missions that can appear where you have a limited time to act such as saving other survivors from bandits or zombies etc.
Most of the missions in the game can be played up to 4 player Coop with a drop in system.
You can compete with each other on temporary challenges aswell when they show up if you accept.
Another big part of the game is movement. You are introduced to parkour right at the start of the game, but will also later on be able to use a grappling hook to move around in the world.
The base game is pretty big itself, but gets a bit longer and better with the dlcs.

Going mostly for the achievements it took me close to 100 hours to beat, but if you do everything you will go a fair bit over 100 hours on average I recon.
I got the Platinum Edition which contained all the dlc needed for 100%.

Overall the movement is very good and satisfying when it works.
The parkour is fun and keeps being useful even if the grapple hook eventually will be the preferred way of moving.

Combat is great, especially the hand to hand special moves like drop kicks etc. were fun and nice to use.

The main story overall was interesting.

The game balance felt surprisingly good.
While you can feel very strong you can easily be overwhelmed by common zombies if you aren't careful.

Nights are scary and the devs have managed to create a good horror atmosphere.
The music, sound effects and some well placed zombies managed to get me jump scared more than once.
I felt on the edge many times which I didn't expect the game to be able to induce.

The sheer amount of content always had you doing something which mostly was a good thing.

Graphics are nice aswell as the setting and scenary of the maps.

The Parkour while being nice didnt feel responsive at times and this became very frustrating.
Typically when jumping to another ledge and pushing space I failed to grab and fell to my death or got a good amount of fall damage.
Other times I pushed twice to make sure it grabbed and it made an extra action or not.
Overall the movement was a bit clunky.

Melee combat against virals and bandits got me mad a lot.
Typically when they have their back turned/leaning I can't reach them when I hit them.
This is just ridiculous especially with Virals who typically move around or dodge a lot.

When zombies bite there is a short animation which can screw you over.
For instance when I swung a sword and would hit the zombie it makes a bite animation and removes my already made attack.
Many times bites stopped me when they shouldnt have.

The main characters decisions and some missions feel so stupid.
While there are "fun" dumb missions there are those that are unamusing.

The inability to respec or disable perks.
Especially some movement related perks I would have skipped entirely as well as the camouflage one which will always have an annoying prompt once you have unlocked it.

Not being able to restart challenges is terrible. Not all places have a good place to jump and die to get back to the start of the challenge quickly.

Lock picking was fun for a few hours but became really annoying.
It should have contributed to progress or you could have been able to craft a breakable tool to automatically open locks.

Some main story missions sent you to your death since it was hard to know what you were gonna do which felt a bit unfair as you lost survival points.

Even with the good movement, fast travel would have been great.
Only between the two maps isn't enough especially since you have to be at a certain place rather than use it in the menu.

Mostly the dlc gear/skins are aesthetically pleasing with some weapons being a bit stronger than average.

I played "Hell Raid" which was fun Coop but not as enjoyable solo.
A quite alright game mode with bosses and all.

"The Bozak Horde" was quite challenging but also the most satisfying challenge of the game.
More enjoyable with another player. It mixes parkour and combat and integrates most of the games mechanics in 20 waves where you have 3 lives in total.

The last dlc I played was "The Following" which is the biggest and adds a whole new Open World map with another good story to explore.
You also get another skill tree for "The buggy" a driveable vehicle only avaliable on this map.
I didn't like the buggy at all in the beginning and still dislike the point of view when driving.
Overall it was a nice addition but could have been implemented better.

I didn't try any other content and hardly used any of the extra weapons or skins etc.

There are things that could have been made better and the game isn't flawless.
I got the Platinum Edition on sale and got a little under 100 hours before being done with the game.
Its definately a good game with solid story, good mechanics and a very good Open World concept.
I would give it 8/10 and recommend it.

//ECE//

Being a free to play Halo game (online) which will continue and improve as time goes I think its great.
The Battle Pass doesnt interest me much and when I compare to something like Apex Legends I can feel how the progression system is a major issue with the game aswell as the rewards being offered.

With that being said I like achievements and think that its great if they keep them to something fun to go for.
I personally stay away from "Halo Master Chief Collection" or whatever since it has lots of mp achievements that feel inconvenient or things that just isnt a good challenge. Like having to beat legendary with other players on campaigns when you might just do it solo or with another friend.

I need more hours to really judge the gameplay, but so far it looks promising and has mostly been enjoyable.

//ECE//

Seeing all the high praise and the good ratings this game had recieved I looked forward to play it.
I got hooked the very first run and played 3-4 hours before I had to quit.

You play as Zagreus, the son of Hades trying to escape from the Underworld and get to Mount Olympus.
Each run you fight your way through different rooms, floors and get aided by the Olympians with boons to help you escape.
These powerups can change a variety of things.
You have three commands in this hack and slash type of rougelike: attack, dash and special.
There is also the ability to get aided by the gods which is sort of like an "Ultimate" or using Cathonic Companions.
The first being given by boons or from a special "Keepsake" while the latter is unlocked later.
The mechanics and the progression system was designed mostly the way I like it with these type of games.
While the runs don't change much, the upgrades you buy after the runs help you to get further and further towards the goal of the game; to escape from The Underworld.

The difficulty isn't too hard or too easy and really comes down to how you decide to play it.
It took me exactly 20 tries to make my first successful escape with the run taking roughly 45 minutes to complete.
Going for fast runs you can make it around 20-30 minutes depending on RNG.
I figured that I wanted to make the most out of the runs so I always picked the weapon which currently gave me bonus darkness gains.
This was an exciting way to play as it made me learn to play each of the different weapons, ranged or melee and not just picked the one I felt was the easiest.

The game has the option to play "God" or "Hell Mode" in addition to the normal mode.
God mode is a smart thing by the devs to give struggling players a better time with the game.
Unlike what the name suggests you don't get an auto-win. From what I get you start with 20% dmg reduction which increasing each time you lose?
I never tried it but I think that it's a genius move by the devs.
This way casual players have a better chance to fully experience the game aswell.
With the game giving you significant power ups to use by grinding darkness it greatly reduces the difficulty if one choses to use these benefits.
There are a few different weapons both melee or ranged that you can unlock and use, offering different approaches to beating the game.
Boons can affect how these weapons behave to some extent offering synergies that can be good or bad.
Further there are "aspects" altering weapons a bit with the hidden ones of each category more drastically changing the weapons.
They have done a good job in offering some variation to keep up replayability and make things easier or more challenging.

Another aspect to difficulty; The "Pact of Punishment".
Its unlocked on a normal save by beating the game once.
Here the game really shines for hardcore Roguelike players or for those who really like a challenge.
Even harder with Hell Mode.
Heat level is increased by selecting modifiers that ups the overall difficulty of the game.
To gain more resources directly you have to increase the heat level when completing a new run.
This is tracked seperately for each weapon meaning that if you beat heat level 1 with the sword you can increase to level 2 and get more rewards with the sword.
All weapons will give rewards once without heat level and then after each increase when beating the game repeatedly.
This means that you can't grind resources by constantly rebattling the first boss etc. The rewards already awarded will instead be replaced by darkness.
A logical design choice since you want darkness to get stronger and beat the game when its harder.
With that said most modifiers aren't that bad and if you play with each weapon it will take quite some time till the difficulty increase really makes a big difference.
This of course depends on the modifiers you pick.

Hades has good story writing and a massive amount of dialogue.
The art work and concept with the gods and all is very well done.
Music is pretty good aswell.
Level design and the floors work well too.
Progression is mostly done correctly so I will call it a pro.
Most of the grinding aspects are also well designed.

The very first thing I disliked about Hades was the dialogues not making sense.
Some times when you speak to Npcs they say things that seem misplaced.
For instance when I beat the game the first time none of the characters practically congratulated me.
On my third win I got what I would expect the first time.
Being told how I finally managed to successfully escape.
This is just one example, there have been quite a few instances.
Like in another case I was told to tell a character about something when I speak to that character the next time again.
So I do it and no progress happens at all.
Two runs later i get the response I would have expected the first time.

While the heat system is interesting it is also a grind wall.
You are basically just making it harder without any benefit if you beat the game with a higher heat level than necessary.
What would have been more rewarding is getting all rewards after defeating the final boss making the challenge worthwhile.
Eventhough I swapped weapons to the one with "darkness boost" each time I shortly after my first win managed to beat the game 26 times in a row.
It felt like an unnecessary grind that could have been better.
The problem with Hades is that you are expected to beat/lose the game a lot.
In regards to content I feel like it doesn't have enough replayability for this to work like for some other roguelikes.
The enemies and amount of floors and bosses aren't that numerous so it becomes somewhat boring when you have done the same thing 20 plus times.

Cathonic companions are cool and all but are rather similar in what they do even though I like that they match well with what they do compared to the character that gives them.
While strong they become available rather late which I dislike to some extent.

The Keepsakes are quite numerous and have a very nice progression system which makes them a bit lackluster as you can only equip one at a time.
Balance would be affected, but in my opinion the Keepsakes should have tiers/categories or some way to make it possible to run more than one at the same time.

The prophecies are good guide in direction but not enough.
I see how it makes sense being prophecies but it would be nice to see what can be done or hints at how to do it.
In the later part of the game I felt like I made no progression at all and my wins felt quite hollow.
Meanwhile I had these prophecies that taunted me that I could't do.
Sure there are guides, but in-game info would be good to avoid spoilers and get better defined goals to go for.

Hades is a very good game and balances some of the most critical aspects of the genres it consists of.
The difficulty has been designed well, the replayability is enough to get good value for money and offers most things you would hope to find in this game.
Hack and slash further makes it an easy game to get into and not need to overthink or feel that frustrated.
If you go for true completion the grind required to get there offers a lot of replayability to those who like to spend time and don't mind the grind.
Getting 100% achievements isn't that hard given the usual challenge of the genre and will last around 100 hours depending on skill level and efficiency.
It is a 9/10 game for me and is worth the full asking price.
*Review lenght reduced as usual...

//ECE//

GWYF is a modern interpretation of mini golf PC games which doesn't aim to be like real mini golf but rather an exciting and fictional variant.
Cool maps, wonky features and extras makes the game a party game so much more than simple mini golf.

There are several courses and after playing the first one and another course its clear that you can't beat below pair without some luck blindly. Learning to putt felt easy and most straight line shots were trivial to determine how hard to putt.
While close even the first "beginner course" had 1 or 2 holes that could destroy your score.
Sometimes you get lucky other times its trial and error. Once you get a grasp and roughly can remember how to play a course its just a few holes that are challenging. Its also the first problem I noticed, that there mostly isn't any RNG, meaning that you can consistently learn to beat the courses with the same shots consistently.
While problematic I think its a good thing given how crazy some stages are, that we don't have wind or something that constantly changes to make it more difficult.

When playing hotseat the host will always be first and there is no option to randomize the order.
Another problem is that the direction of the last player will remain. So if you make a crazy shot and hit a hole in one and don't move, the next player can easily do the same shot.
Giving the option to randomize or set rules to best player beginning etc. aswell as always making the sight be straight at the start of each players turn would be a good remedy to the issues mentioned.

Playing online all players shoot at the same time which is awesome. It means that it goes faster with less waiting and that you practically have the same condition as any other player.
There a lot of cool options availble to customize and vastly changes the gameplay experience.
The most creative functions that you can enable are power ups, jumping, spinm changing size and ball shapes and the most nasty one of them all collision.

You can save your own custom setups.
Other modes include Practice, Free Roam, Dunk and Hockey.
Dunk and Hockey change the stages a bit and changes the goals to a basket ball goal and a hockey goal.
Jumping is fun and the hockey puck doesnt behave the same as the ball naturally.
I wasn't much into these modes but they are a creative and different way to play for sure.

You can also use the level editor and from what I gather there are a lot of community made courses.
Lastly you can customize you ball with color, trail and life ring.
On some stages you need to travel on water which activates the life ring.
To get new items you need to finish a course after playing atleast 45 minutes up to 3 times per day, resetting the same time you got the drops.
This is a classic mistake. I love the drops and all but they really should have a time each day when the drops reset to make this easier.

As for the achievements they provide a balanced challenge where the most challenging part is beating each course on par or better. A grind to get 10k shots which you can easily do and will get a decent amount from normal play.
Good game design overall except from some glitchy behaviour on some courses.

There are some game breaking bugs, atleast 4 times I have gotten stuck and automatically gotten 14 shots when playing classic. I have clipped through places and hit invisible walls. Overall it hasn't been that bad, but its definately an issue.
Hockey is by far the worst. Some stages don't feel balanced with the puck barely making it when you are as close as you can be to a curve etc. Also it moved by itself on a stage and switched direction and behaved illogically and many times clipped right through the stages.

I tried with both controller and mouse.
Mouse is a little bit harder as you click and then adjust how much force to use while holding.
On controller you can set the force bar and then fire, but it can be harder to be get the bar at the level you want so both have thier pros and cons.
With the mouse I somehow got it to play tre shots in a row without touching it, only happened once though.
With the "xbox one" controller I can easily by pausing and then pushing resume with "A", automatically shoot.
So don't touch the force bar before doing that...

I like the customization options and the overall creativity of the game. The drops are a nice addition with the big negative of being tied to when you got the drop rather than resetting the same time each day as mentioned before.
The game is highly beatable without guides. I was a bit worried that it would be too hard to get par on all the courses. Turns out it wasn't that bad at all.
I recommend trying to find safe course you always know you can beat with margin and remember how or if needed write down how to do it.
At worst look up a strategy for the harder maps.
Using guides and not trying yourself removes the challenge and a big part of the game to learn and find nice ways to beat the stages.
The courses are themed, look nice and feel unique.

By far the most fun is playing with your friends online. While hotseat is nice it takes a lot more time.
Very good that its an option though.
If not playing with friends as a party game, it can still be nice and give you atleast around 20+ hours of gameplay to beat all the stages etc. and 100% the game as a solo player.

GWYF is a great party game with practically infinite replayability with the included level editior and all of the customization options.
Best played with friends it can still be enjoyed and provide a good challenge for a solo player.
I would recommend getting it at a sale if you have never played it before.
For some this game won't be fun for more than a few hours which goes for most party games.
The game isn't perfect and has its glitches/bugs.

//ECE//

Initially when you play, the score each time you lose or win adds to a bar which gives you unlocks for the character you play. It happens a few times with increasing points required. It gives you access to some new cards and relics.
A good example is playing the Daily Mode and noticing cards and relics you can't find in the normal game, those are locked.
It is somewhat of a negative compared to other games in the genre. I like when you unlock things by playing making you stronger and giving you a better chance of winning. However while true in this game aswell, it isn't as apparent.

There are 4 characters of which 3 is available from the start. Each having the same cards with different art except for 2 or so specific cards to that character when starting.
At the start you can chose between a few different bonuses before beginning the climb.
The design is pretty interesting with multiple paths to choose and further giving the RNG another aspect.
Checking the map and deciding where to go is important especially when playing the increasingly difficult Ascension Mode.

As mentioned earlier there is a Daily mode. It has some predefined rules and changes made to the game.
It can be your starting deck or what happens at resting places, but the basic concept is to force you to play the game differently competing with other players.
I played the mode first till I beat it since I still could progress with character unlocks and there was an achievement for beating it. Important thing to know is that this mode, custom mode where you can setup you own rules and setting a seed will disable gaining achievements.
I believe there's an endless mode aswell.

As for the cards in the game each character has their own color of cards.
There is however "colorless cards" which are availble to all characters. One of the earliest things you will notice is how to use the cards of the game and how certain cards work better with each other than others.
Then there is one of the most enjoyable aspects of the game; adding and removing cards in your deck.
Its very easy to add many cards and clog up your deck with cards that don't work that well with each other.
Removing them is harder.

As for the map you have a boss counter after each act and since you can see which one you will face you will learn to know which cards and strategies work against which boss. There are question marks which can be monsters, shops or events of many different kinds, some exclusive to specific acts.
There are 3 acts you need to beat to win with a 4th optional "mini act" later on.
At shops you can buy potions, remove one card each time you visit increasing the service cost, buy relics or cards.
Monsters have different icons signaling that they are a normal monsters, elite or enhanced elite.
As you can guess elites are harder and give better relics etc. in general as rewards.

When you have completed the unlocks and beaten the game with the secret boss with all characters it in my opinion goes down hill. The sense of progress which for me is a very big part of the genre is significantly lost.
After this point its a lot up to the player to make the game appealing. Are you an achievement hunter?
Great, there are a bunch of challenging achievements to go for.
Do you like to experiment, well then custom mode is for you.
Want a quick challenge with a different way to play, then daily might be what's in store for you.
The game has a lot of ways to entertain you.

I as an achievement hunter started to go for some of the achievements.
The game has made these challenging but balanced. Sure, some require a lot of RNG to be achieved, but it gives you something to go for and keep playing.
When I had beaten most of them I decided to start going for Ascension mode.
Basically there are 20 with increasing difficulty added between each number.
A design decision I question is why they kept each ascension level locked by character.
This means that if you get bored after beating ten of these levels you will have to beat all of those levels aswell to be able to play the same level as they unlock per character.
You can play a custom game and do ascension 20, but then the achievement won't count.
So my advice there is to hopefully find a character you like and decide that "I will beat it with this character" like I did.
Some beat it with all characters and even do the secret boss aswell for even higher difficulty.
However at this level of difficulty you won't beat it everytime no matter how good you are as RNG plays a big part on how successful your run will be.

All characters can beat Ascension Mode and I don't know which one is the easiest or most fun. but I did it with "The Defect".
A very good thing about playing this frustrating mode is that it really forces you to understand and pick cards or match cards with relics you find to increase your chances at winning. It pushes you to become a better player.
Its interesting that you can become extremely strong in runs, but mostly you will struggle to survive, atleast when it comes to high level ascension mode.
As enemies become tougher here its important to learn how to counter them.
Sometimes having cards that hit multiple enemies are good, at other times those cards are countered by enemies with thorns etc. You can feel that you have a good setup and encounter a single enemy that you cant handle with your deck and its all over.
The game is very unforgiving in that way.
Easy to enjoy and learn the basics, but quite hard to be able to make the best decisions and see more distant synergies etc.
I learned by myself and later checked wiki etc. for card synergies etc.
Some things have been balanced or is dated, I didn't learn anything useful.
Watching a youtuber I realised what I figured out earlier about how much a single decision can determine your outcome.

There is no guaranteed way to win and there isn't a single broken strategy or card that will win you the game.
General ways to play and what cards are more useful than others is learnable, but will only increase your odds.
Sometimes dumb builds that normally won't work can demolish thanks to relics or a combination of things.
Its a very nice thing about the game, that there are so many ways you can beat it if you get the right conditions.

I also want to mention an exploit that I think is something they should do something about.
If you save and quit in the middle of a battle or event you will restart the battle or encounter the event from the start.
This is really good for fixing an accidental missclick or rebattle and try to see if you could win or play more optimally.
As for events its an issue. You can do risky decisons and if you fail simply save & quit. Now you can skip doing it and save yourself from a bad decision.
Fixing this doing a "rebattle" button or something and removing the exploit is my suggestion.
Some try hards don't want this to exist at all. They expect you to play the wrong card and lose and do another 1-2 hours wasting an entire run.
Trust me the game is enough RNG already. People are also wrong about how useful this is I find.
I have won rounds where I didn't think it was possible by not playing the "right way" getting better draw and with 1 HP beating the battle.
Sure its not 100% legit and it won't save most runs but still, I like it and want to mention it.
Potentially saving an hour is a good reason too!

Slay The Spire is an unforgiving and highly enjoyable rougelike deckbattler/builder.
It has interesting mechanics and a lot of challenge for those who want it.
It took me 150 hours with maybe 5 hours of afk to get all ach. its definately a hard game to 100%.
For true completion you can easily spend 100 more hours, its up to you but I say its well worth the money.
I Highly Recommend it!

//ECE//