Recent reviews by Emilio

"Less is more" is a mantra that I wish this developer had in mind.

Purely from a gameplay standpoint it isn't bad, the combat is a simpler version of the Batman combat, pretty much a one button combat system. It does it's job and can even be fun at times from how well it flows.
You have a magic system which just buffs/heals you and a run of the mill skill tree.

The biggest highlight is the humor which is actually pretty funny, it's a lot of pop culture references to games, events and celebrities.
At times it's borderline modernized Gex dialogue.

My biggest issue is the structure of the story. You have this book that the main character is reading that shows him the future and many different outcomes of his actions and you learn truth's at dead ends that you can then use to figure out a perfect solution with this knowledge to forge the perfect path where you survive the events of the game.

Now the issue is that even with the truth's known; nothing actually changes apart from eventually unlocking the true ending when all are found.
So say you know for a fact that every decision with a specific character is a bad idea cause they are a bad person the MC will constantly mention their knowledge of this fact but ignore it for the sake of letting that story unfold as if you didn't know this fact.
Which makes it kinda pointless to even have this meta narrative of learning knowledge you shouldn't have to influence the story, I wish the game was way shorter and focused more on that meta narrative even if it would be even more linear.

Also I have to mention the fact that you can not skip cutscenes and have to replay so much of the game and rewatch the same cutscenes over and over again to 100%, it's a pain.

So overall despite being a little bit negative about it.
It is a pretty good Steam Deck game if you want a simple little adventure game in short bursts but I do not recommend getting 100%.
A very similar game that is pretty much the same concept but perfected is Beacon Pines which I would highly recommend checking out.

Oh wow.
What a genuinely fun experience in one of the most stylish packages I have ever seen.

STRAFE® from the get-go I have to say as a little warning.
Do not expect a deep or varied rogue-like, this is not that.
There is a severe lack of variety compared to essentially every other rogue-like I have ever played and every run for better or for worse feel pretty much the exact same.
Think of the game more like a normal shooter kinda like DOOM but with permadeath and semi-randomized elements that is highly replayable from the pure fun factor.

Now with that said the gameplay is *chef's kiss* pure excellence and some of the most fun I have had in a while.
The movement is wicked fast as you STRAFE® around at lighting speed shooting enemies into meaty bits.
The music kicks ass and get's you pumped while everything get's covered in blood and chunks fly everywhere.
There is an extensive mutator system to spice up the gameplay and some completely change the way you play the game (like one makes it an rpg with a whole xp and leveling system)

It honestly at times just feels perfect in how well it puts you in a flow state so intense the real world seriously feel like it is in slow motion after you're done playing.

AND OH MY GOD THE STYLE ON DISPLAY!
The visuals first and foremost are world class.
The way you can interact with all the little things Duke Nukem-style and all their wonderful animations is just WOW.
Also the fact that you are always in first person behind the helmet and every loading screen is some kind of transportation in real time instead of a static screen to the next area makes a run have no cuts whatsoever and is a level of immersion I rarely see in any other game ever.
The game just oozes style from every crevice.

Like so many Devolver published games the game is also chock-full of references and mini-games to other Devolver titles aswell as other old school shooters in general.
The game feels like a love letter to the shooting genre in every single way and you can tell the developers love this genre and had fun making the game.

STRAFE® is not a perfect game by a long shot.
But if you enjoy fast paced boomer shooters then you will almost certainly have a blast playing this game as much as I did.

Thank you Pixel Titans for such an incredible game!

Horrible start to a game. Seriously one of the worst I have experienced.
The first 5 hours is just buggy and janky cutscenes and talking and more talking.

However if you can manage to get past the horrible opening and get to the wide open world the game becomes one of the few "true" open world type games kind of in the same way Breath of the Wild was.
You have your main objective which is the tribe war and 4 world eaters to kill and you can do that at any time in any order right from the start which is cool.
The sense of freedom and exploration is pretty much unmatched for most of the game.

The end of the game is when it starts to teeter out again. You'll stop finding better loot and at that point you only really have the main quests left and can speedrun the rest of the game in a few hours.

Gameplay is rather simple, you have one button for shooting, one for melee and a dodge.
You can make a few combo's using a special button but outside of that you really do the same thing from start to finish.
There is a rudimentary "magic" system with a few mutation and PSI powers.
They both do roughly the same thing and a few focus more on movement then combat.

Overall the game is very simple but if you know what you're signing up for you'll probably also have a very fun time if you enjoy exploring as much as I do!

As far as souls-likes go this game was pretty fun.

The character customization is really well made, like one of the best ones I have tried.
The voice acting while a little bit cheesy is pretty good and the actors when they get going deliver a heck of a performance.
The music's orchestral score goes pretty hard aswell.

The moment to moment gameplay is really fun, there is a lot of different systems in play and the way you inherit blood codes promotes playing more varied which is a good way of making the player try different stuff instead of making an early build and never changing after that.

The weapon variety on the other hand is much too low, only having 5 types in total that all play mostly the same from one another is a big issue.
It also suffers from you always being slower then enemies and having painfully little stamina.
So you often have to play the waiting game and these two factors encourage you to make one shot or glass cannon builds too much which hurts replayability.

The map is okay, nothing spectacular but it's varied enough to contain most of the types of zones you'd expect in an RPG.

Overall if you're really itching for another souls-like you can do a lot worse then Code Vein.

It's a weird thing this game.
Apart from the action combat the game is a downgrade in most aspects compared to the developers previous Styx games.

The voice acting is very amateurish and the cutscenes are absolutely atrocious, no joke some characters T-pose during the in-engine cutscenes.
The story is pretty generic and forgettable all things considered and I don't think we're getting a sequel let's be fair.

That said I still had fun because there is nothing wrong with the gameplay.
As far as stealth games go this one is pretty acceptable and honestly quite fun in it's early 7'th gen video game quality kind of way.
The action combat is straight out of Sonic Generations night stages and you can play it no problem as either kind of game depending on how you feel which is nice. One of the few stealth games where failing stealth doesn't feel terrible.

Overall it is a really short and fun experience if you know what you're getting into, buy it on sale if you like these type of low budget titles but don't expect a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination.
I highly recommend also checking out the developers previous Styx titles as they are much better games and go for a little bit cheaper on sale.

Because I don't want to be too negative I'll start with the few things I did like.
The music was really good and is exactly the type of music I normally listen to so I will definitely keep listening to that soundtrack.
The artstyle is also really pretty and colorful with it's cel shaded and painted on aesthetic.

Now that is sadly where the good stuff ends.

Thing is the game kinda lies about what it actually is.
It's not really procedurally generated and you are railroaded into very specific events over the course of game as you play the different faceless missing teens.
Now the events do show up in random orders but it is more linear then you would believe from how the game presents itself.

The gameplay is very weird and I can only describe it as they wanted to make a VR game but at some point they changed their mind and made it playable with M&K instead. Your FOV is uncomfortably small, the way you interact with the world is by clicking these huge floating textboxes and for most of the game you are completely stationary with everyone being right up in your face all the time. When you can move around it's like your on ice and slip and slide everywhere.

The playable character(s) are all a bunch of faceless teens trying to cross the border, but apart from being a boy/girl and having characters refer to you as either homie or homegirl you really don't feel like your playing different characters and I wish the game made you take a much longer journey where characters recall your previous actions.
As it is right now everyone just talks to you like they already know you while never being very specific and makes you a bit disconnected from the plot as you're fairly unimportant in the grand scheme of things.
You always just feel like a side character in someone else's story.

The characters you interact with also don't really reference previous events which makes everything feel disjointed and disconnected since you only get to experience these small piecemeal stories that aren't that important to the characters, except when it suddenly is but those are always part of the linear required story events.
Sadly all the characters you interact with are all total psychopaths and never really talk or interact like real people.
Everyone is always super over the top and have no regard for human life or really anything.

The main character isn't much better in that regard, the only things you can say to people are things you would never ever want to actually say in a similar situation. You always feel like you're either completely stupid with no urgency for your own life or like a complete psychopath with no regard to anyone else's safety. Which means picking dialogue options feel like a 50/50 if you pick the right or wrong choice since everything feels like the wrong thing to say.

On the topic of choices there aren't really any choices that actually matter despite them saying so, win or lose it doesn't really matter for the story since you're not actually important in the overarching plot. Because of how dialogue options are a bit unclear and characters rarely react like you think they would you barely feel like you where ever in charge of making a choice when the game suddenly tells you that an event had an outcome (Every choice that "matters" only changes very small things in the ending sequence and are not that noticeable)

Now the overarching plot isn't really that complicated to be honest.
I am not gonna be cute and skirt around what the story is. It's Trump, it's just Trump.
The story is about a Trump stand-in that built a wall and is ruining the country and the importance of using your right to vote to get Trump out of office.
That's the overarching story that happens and you can get 1 of 3 endings depending on if you supported the revolution, vote democrat or just want to leave the country to get away from Trump.
I think you can guess which is the good ending. It's not very subtle.

Overall I would recommend listening to the soundtrack even if I wouldn't recommend the game.

LunarLux is a love letter to a a lot of different games.
Most prominently Mega Man Battle Network and Undertale but also indie gaming in general.

It is a game with a lot of soul and charm in it's world and writing.
Although it is very cheesy and lighthearted I still think the story was well made and has me hyped for a sequel!!

At it's core it's a turn based RPG but attacking enemies and avoiding enemy attacks has you do several different and unique minigames and QTE's, at times it is legitimately difficult and requires that you actually learn the attack patterns to succeed which is very satisfying once you pull it off in my opinion.

Overall it is not the longest game in the world and it certainly doesn't overstay it's welcome.
I really hope to see a sequel one day as this was just a really good time overall and honestly is very underrated sitting at only 200 reviews as of me writing this review.

Making the game even more grindy by making the versus mode have an entirely new currency that is not shillings.
So all your hard earned shillings are still as worthless now as they where before.

Good job Fatshark, you prove again and again that you have little to no respect for your players time.
More worried about making money and making people addicted to your products then providing a genuinely fun and memorable experience like back in the day.
Your business practices make me sick.

First things first and a warning for people sensitive to unpolished games.
The game is very indie, has a fair amount of bugs and feels very rough to play due to a lack of experience from the devs on a technical level.
If that doesn't sound like something you can handle then I don't recommend the game.

Now this game just oozes soul. The art direction is beautiful, the voice acting is beyond charming and the music is brilliant!
I rarely laugh while playing games but I couldn't stop laughing and smiling throughout the entire story mode.
In a lot of ways the world and characters reminds me of Double Fine and how their games feel.
However this isn't really a platformer and more of a boss rush game so don't expect a huge world to explore or anything.

So No Straight Roads is a beat 'em up and feels a bit like a XB360/PS3 type game or something that would have come out in that era but the gimmick here is that the enemies move to the beat of the rhythm even though you're free to move without having to time button presses (outside of parries)
In that regard the game is very simple and honestly if you just play the normal mode and go straight for the end then you're gonna beat the game very quickly and without much difficulty.

My biggest issue with the game is honestly everything outside the normal main game.
Normal difficulty is way too easy and I think the crazy tracks are where the gameplay actually truly shines in terms of fun and difficulty.

But the parry mode and perfect parry modes are just ♥♥♥♥ for a lack of a better word.
While there is plenty of heals and freedom to how you play normally, parry mode limits you to only parries and this is when you will really feel how busted the timings can really be and sometimes right up off beat with the music which feels really bad and a lot of trial and error to figure out timings.
Perfect parry gives you 1 hp so you have to perfect the fight which is miserable cause of how buggy the game is and near impossible to play without exploits.
So I really recommend ignoring the parry mode stuff in the post game and just enjoying the game for what it is.

Overall despite a few bad side modes and how more or less pointless the whole skill tree and sticker system is, I really think the charming characters and world really makes this an experience worth experiencing!

The idea is really solid.
You set up cameras to track a squirrel, wait for nightfall and then you try and follow the squirrel back to it's destination through a period of a few days as you narrow down where it's going.

But in execution it's rather tedious having to run all the way back every single day and pressing the record button for what is almost always only about 30 seconds of footage or less at a time and repeatedly doing that over and over again.

The second issue that partially makes this not as bad but introduce a whole new problem is the end location is always very obvious. Meaning you most of the time just see a landmark that sticks out and see the nut pile there and can just skip the entire journey by placing a camera there early.
Which is a huge issue, I finished every single scenario under 1 week each; most in just 2 or 3 days.

Big spoilers for the ending.
I was very much overestimating the difficulty of the final part and thought you had to follow the correct squirrel instead of just the whole pack. So after about 5 days of following the right one of the three I was so disappointed to find out there was no actual puzzle at the end and it was simply jumping from the branch. The story also just doesn't go anywhere and there is no payoff for the work done. Which is a huge shame as I was really excited to see the conclusion by the end.

Overall for the rather big price I have a very hard time recommending this game.
I really think there is a cool idea to be expanded and improved upon and I hope the devs do someday.