Recent reviews by Chowderclef

Played this one on stream.

Thoroughly enjoyed it. I should show it to 682's author.

Don't come into this expecting a full-on XCOM game. Chimera Squad is a story-driven standalone expansion, similar to Far Cry: Blood Dragon.

GOOD: The new initiative system gives the game an extra layer of tactical thinking, and helps balance out the issues with the old "You Go, I Go" system (in which a single enemy turn could wipe out an entire squad while you watch helplessly). The "Breach" mechanic is an interesting way to start off battles. Character design is fun and varied.

BAD: The big issue for me is the lack of diversity in the voices. The Viper soldier (Torque) is nearly indistinguishable from the human medic, who sounds almost exactly like the Sectoid (Verge). Giving the alien soldiers' voices a more inhuman tone and pitch would really sell the idea that these soldiers are aliens working alongside humans.

MAYBE: Would really like the opportunity to create even one custom soldier. XCOM and XCOM2 had an excellent character creator and it's a shame to get rid of it completely. Maybe if instead of "androids," generic soldiers acted as your backup during missions, that would help things.

With all due respect, this is the most lesbian game I've ever played. It's got a trance soundtrack sung by a breathy-voiced girl, women in slacks and masks fighting with swords on the backs of motorcycles, and a story about overcoming a broken heart by loving yourself and kissing girls on the cheek. Epilepsy warning due to flashing lights, and fair warning: you can beat the game in about an hour or so.

EDIT: The game makers have added options to get rid of the annoying UI quirks. I've repurchased it during the Steam Summer sale and am resuming play. Will write a full review when I've played it for a bit longer.

This could be a good game. I wouldn't know. I've only played 22 minutes of it, and I can't bear to play any more because of one glaringly irritating issue: the main menu screen that you use for all of your inventory and squad management has this really irritating "perspective" thing where the entire thing appears slanted away from the viewer at about a 30 degree angle. There's a reason why most menu screens are flat-on to the viewer: it gives you more space to work with, and it's a lot less disorienting, and given how much time you spend on this screen, I can see this minor irritation turning into a big one after a couple of hours of play. I'm returning this game for a refund until I hear that this issue gets fixed, at which point I might re-review it.

It's a visual novel with a twist: you steer the conversations by picking a particular drink to serve your clients. Like a good bartender, your skill at this game relies mostly on reading your customer and figuring out what kind of drink they want. You'll end up memorizing orders for your regulars, flipping through your recipe book trying to pick a cocktail to fit a client's mood, and so on and so forth. Waifu Bartending indeed.

It's Doom.

It's free, and you get what you paid for: it's a small, proof of concept-style hack-and-slasher in the vein of Dynasty Warriors done as a first effort by a bunch of Chinese programmers.

Earthbound meets Children of Men meets Silent Hill. Super Bunnyhop used the word "Rancid" to describe it, and I can't think of any better word to sum up LISA in a nutshell: this game leaves you with a sick feeling to your stomach, as it unflinchingly depicts one of the most blackly funny post-apocalyptic settings I've ever run into.

I don't know if this game is good. I don't even know if I like it. I can't even say I'm glad I played it. But I found it compelling enough to finish.

Content warning: Gore, mutilation, Cronenbergian body-horror, child sexual abuse, drug abuse, and professional wrestling.

XCOM 2 takes the basic concepts and ideas of XCOM Enemy Unknown and builds upon them to create a newer, fresher take on the events of the first game. There are a lot of mechanical fixes and gameplay changes, but the core of the game remains the same: build up a team of badass soldiers, lead them into glorious battle, then gasp in horror as your mans get killed horribly by alien monsters.

On the other hand, the game is horribly optimized, suffers from a bunch of stuttering problems, and at one point somehow messed up my save files so that I couldn't load any of my save games that took place during the final mission, The new vision and line-of-sight indicators help mitigate some of the problems of the isometric perspective, but it isn't quite enough, and I had one early mission nearly go awry because I couldn't tell where my Specialist could stand to get line of sight on a laptop computer I needed to hack.

There have been a lot of complaints over the timed missions: I personally don't mind too much. The turn limits add tension, but don't particularly feel unfair: of course, I haven't yet tried my Commander Ironman run, so that might change in the future.

Finally, the game's story really does expect that you've played the Tutorial level: otherwise, the explanation for how your main character ended up where they are is kind of glossed over. The replacement first mission if you choose not to redo the Tutorial feels a bit disjointed from the story in consequence: I would have much preferred to replay that Tutorial level, except with a full squad of random soldiers, some more enemies, and without the hand-holding prompts.

TIPS: Forego Guerilla Tactics in favor of Advanced Warfare: the improved healing rate is a godsend, and the chance that your soldiers will get bonus perks as they level up is too good to pass up. For Sharpshooters, tend towards Gunslinger over Sniper: those aforementioned Timed Missions mean that you really need your squad to be as mobile as possible. For Specialists, Combat Hackers over Medics: Given a choice between shutting down or even taking over an enemy mecha (which can keep an entire squad alive) or healing up hit points from one or two soldiers in your squad, I'd rather take the former. I have no strong opinions on Rangers or Grenadiers.

It's a mountain.

That's all. That's freaking all.

It's a mountain.

. . . What the heck did I just play?