Recent reviews by MellowMonkey

Build trust with a very good first game and then let some spreadsheet a-hole ruin it with microtransaction in the second.

Best of it´s kind. The end.

I had about enough of rogue-like games but Dungeon of the Endless is a whole other animal. By going down the RPG-road, taking a hard left at the tower defense genre and bringing this clevery package to a full stop at classic strategy games like dungeon keeper, DotE arrives at a unique place.

It´s high difficulty, motivating character development and stage design grants the game a rare pull that keeps you coming back for more. Beautiful pixel-art, a haunting soundtrack and a good sense of humor round up what was easily one of my most enjoyable experiences this year.

Don´t miss Dungeon of the Endless!

It´s games likes these that save the overused label "retro game" from becoming irrelevant and trivial. Legend of Grimrock 2 takes only the strong and healthy roots from the RPG-past and nourishes them to grow into something utterly fun and motivating. A clever modernization that swings the once bumpy genre into todays comfort zone, a challenging difficulty and a huge world map with a crazy amount of details not only make Grimrock 2 a much better game than it´s predecessor, it´s also one of the best RPG-experiences you´ll have this year.

These guys are on to something! Although "State of Decay" suffers from rugged game design, annoying repetition, some bugs and its cheap looks, the core mechanics and the motivating fight for survival will pull you in deeper and deeper. This game is fun. Not a hit yet but Undead Labs will get there.

Another important step in environmental storytelling. "Gone home" offers no cutscenes, dialogs or textblocks - it puts all its characters, plot points, hints and - most importantly - emotional triggers into artifacts that can be found around the house. This is done extremly precise. It´s incredible how much you know about this struggling family and their life in the 90ies after you finished the game since all you did was walking around and grabing stuff. Not boring but intense, intriguing and immersive "Gone Home" is a riddle that needs to be solved by everyone.

„Brothers – A Tale of Two Sons“ gehört einer neuen Generation von Indie-Games an. Ein Spiel, das die hohe Kunst des schlüssigen Game-Designs gemeistert hat. Hier arbeiten Mechanik, Stilmittel, Erzählweise und Story Hand in Hand, um gemeinsam etwas Außergewöhnliches zu erreichen. Und genau das gelingt auch – Brothers ist ein außergewöhnlich guter Titel. Gekrönt wird dieses kleine Kunststück von dem befriedigendenGefühl, eine märchenhafte Reise erlebt zu haben. Wenn nach drei Stunden der Abspann über den Bildschirm läuft, hat man in „Brothers – A Tale of Two Sons“ so viele kurzweilige Abenteuer und erinnerungswürdige Momente erlebt, dass man kaum glauben kann, dass dieses Spiel so kurz ist. Wer „Brothers“ dabei sein etwas repetitives Rätsel-Design verzeihen kann, der hat hier nicht nur einen offiziellen Anwärter auf den Indie-Hit des Jahres vor sich, sondern obendrein auch noch die wohl emotionalste Verwendung des linken Triggers, die jemals in einem Videospiel stattfand.