Recent reviews by Less

READ NEGATIVE REVIEWS.

90% of them will voice nit-pick problems. FOV locking, unskippable cutscenes, skewed difficulty curve and act like the game is ENTIRELY unredeemable because of these issues and leave a negative review. They're not invalid, but if ALL you have to complain about a game are these minor things I think that says wonders about the REST of the polish. A patch or two later and you'll have NOTHING to complain about.

Redout 2 has been out for 16 hours, jesus christ. Cut the poor developers some slack.

A true testament to everything indie games represent.

Mechanically deep and astoundingly well made... But never overstays its welcome, it'll be over before you know it - Though Inscryption isn't short.

Your expectations will be subverted, then subverted again, and with that in mind the game will still surprise you.
Inscryption has so much identity, so much going for it that nothing else does, and that makes losing it so much harder.
Nothing like it, good luck!

spoder

shape

yep

The Gameplay is a mastery of "less is more" with enough content to satisfy casual play and an INSANE amount of content for completionists. Good luck with the golden berries...

The Soundtrack is made with an astonishingly deep understanding of the games central themes. Award winning for a reason and absolutely plentiful.

The Story is a productive approach to coping with depression and anxiety and helps to rationalise why we feel in the first place.

The greatest lesson Celeste has to teach is not to hate or despise feeling, but to engage with, cooperate, and understand it.

Masterpiece of a title.

Dread, the game.
Also lots of other good stuff :)

detailing this later
It's amazing, though.

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CONCLUSION FIRST:
Conclusion: A small game. But a good one!

Overall, Two Realms isn't a bad game on it's own! It's very cheap and a great puzzle platformer. As it's own game it holds up very well! But returning fans may find themselves disappointed, Two Realms was unable to accomplish the greater aspects of the first two Drawn To Life titles. The genre change may be jarring for some, not everyone likes puzzle games.

This is not a triumphant return to the series but a calculated attempt to make a solid game with a clearly limited budget.
The creative director has explicitly stated Two Realms is designed to revive the series and set up the world for ADDITIONAL sequels. They did not have the time nor money to make a grand third title, so they're using Two Realms to fund for a much better 4th instalment that can match expectations fans have been waiting 11 years for.

That being said it's a A THIRD OF THE PRICE OF THE ORIGINAL GAMES, which if you ask me; Justifies any shortcomings I have with the game. Well worth it.

I'm quite enjoying Two Realms and would greatly encourage anyone interested in the series to try it out to see how they feel! But it's perfectly acceptable to be disappointed... Hopefully this game can fund future titles!

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First I will clarify:
Two Realms was made by most of the original team for Drawn to Life.
Same Writer.
Same Creative Director.
Same Pixel Artist.
Same Musician.

This is a good game! But there are some clear gripes about it...
Let's talk about gameplay.

A PUZZLE Platformer
Where previously Drawn to Life was an action platformer. Two Realms goes the complete opposite with a PUZZLE PLATFORMER.
It's certainly getting harder as time goes by, and for the genre it's actually really really good!
The character feels responsive and surprisingly doesn't feel as floaty as trailers might imply.
It has a unique gameplay loop where you place level objects and enemies to the stage (like mario maker), then have to play through it.

It's a very cool and requires you to think differently about stages, "Do I put an enemy here to jump for extra height? Or will this just make the stage harder? How can I use this spring to launch myself in the direction of the goal? How do I make a stage that knocks this bomb into the breakable blocks?"

It's really unique and enjoyable gameplay that (while simple) is far more polished and refined than earlier Drawn to Life titles.

That being said it is a sharp genre change... Not everyone's a fan of puzzle games and that's totally justified. It gets difficult too.

Oh by the way... There's no drawing. At all.

"NO DRAWING???"
I KNOW RIGHT?

The only drawing takes place during story events, you don't draw level gimmicks like platforms or swords... Just your character and other trinkets around the raposa village.
I can see why they made this decision, so the gameplay part of the game isn't interrupted every 5 seconds to force you to draw something (Which was a huge issue with the earlier titles). But DRAWING is the point of the series, they could have gone the route of The Next Chapter and simply added presets for every available drawing so you don't HAVE to draw if you don't want to. A very strange and very disappointing loss... Perhaps they didn't have the resources for it.

The Story (Spoiler Free!)
There's plenty of charm. Can confirm there were several chortles.
It feels great to see all the characters again.
Also Mike has a personality now.

The story touches on some surprisingly heavy themes, which was great to see tackled. Honestly kind of heart warming.
Wouldn't be Drawn to Life without some existentialism.

Good twists too.

BUT it's not as large scale as The Next Chapter or even the original Drawn to Life. Which I suppose could sum up this entire game. Good polish for this small title, but doesn't reach as far as the original games.

Bugs!
A lot of bugs and a few oversights currently, a patch or two could easily fix this though.

You earn stars for every level depending on how many points you get, and some stages have these bullet bill cannon guys that infinitely shoot out rockets.

You can jump on the rockets for 100 points and they don't stop coming, they always give 100 points.
That's a pretty huge oversight lol.



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Conclusion at the beginning!

Incredible