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Recent reviews by sheep

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No one has rated this review as helpful yet
5.4 hrs on record (5.2 hrs at review time)
Crayon Physics isn't a BAD game, it's just not one that I can really recommend. The pricipal mechanic (drawing objects that help a ball get from Point A to Point B) is novel at first, but quickly grows repetitive.

You'd think a game like this would reward creativity, but it's really just a victim of its own flexibility. Instead of coming up with clever or elegant solutions, you're heavily incentivized to draw crude, formless objects that fling or nudge the ball in the right direction until you eventually do something that achieves your goal. The game gets difficult at times, but you never feel like you're being forced to think much; it's just that moving the ball from one place to another is so unwieldy that it's hard to implement a real solution. In fact, I'm pretty sure that even the creator didn't have elgant solutions in mind for some of these puzzles. Every once in a while you'll do something neat that feels rewarding, but it's a very rare occurrence.

Weirdly, the game actually feels like it's a little too long. You're introduced to a couple of new mechanics along the way, but by the end of the game all of the puzzles start to feel the same. There's actually really not much you can do with the engine, so it's not long before the game gets stale. In the end, it doesn't feel much like a physics sandbox at all. I finished the game, but I didn't want to; I'm just a completionist.

If this game were $5, then yeah it might be worth picking up for a plane ride or to play with your kids. In fact this game probably gets a bit more fun if multiple people are "playing" it together at once, huddled around the screen. But at $20, I really can't recommend this at all.
Posted July 8, 2015. Last edited July 8, 2015.
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No one has rated this review as helpful yet
39.4 hrs on record (39.4 hrs at review time)
This game is surprisingly phenomenal. The combat is meaty, responsive, and fast-paced, the dialogue and characters are actually kind of well written, and the visual style is top notch. Every once in a while I got that weird feeling in my spine that you get when you're taking in a fantasy environment and it's just awe-inspiring. The game has a lot of content, too, and it'll probably take you somewhere around 20 hours to go through it without rushing. That's 20 hours of well-spent fun, and not just padding (unless you consider well-designed dungeons to be padding).

There are a couple of problems. The game isn't broken, but it's a little buggy. Throughout my playtime I experienced a stuck character, a frozen boss, the sound cutting out, and a few crashes. Luckily, the game's autosaves are generous enough that none of these things ended up being a big issue. In terms of the game itself, the combat and platforming can be a little frustrating at times, with Death sometimes acting like he has a mind of his own. These issues are the exception, though, and not the norm. I also feel like they went a little overboard with the sidequests and collectibles. It's not the quantity that's the problem, but the way they're presented—they're scattered throughout the entire world, but there's nothing to help you figure out where the ones are that you missed. Even a simple zone counter for each type of item (like the original Darksiders had) would have been enough to make the collectibles more fun, rather than frustrating. As it stands, unless you want to spend 20 hours painstakingly combing over ever inch of ground in the entire game after you've already gone through all of it, you're probably not going to find everything you want to—without a guide, anyway.

To tell the truth, all of those issues DO detract from the game, but the game is so good in general that they're completely outweighed by the good stuff. One thing to keep in mind is that you should probably play Darksiders before playing this game. While it stands on its own, Death's motivations are much less relatable unless you've gone through War's storyline first. If I had to recommend only one game out of the two, I'd recommend this one, but you should really play both. They're both great.
Posted July 4, 2015.
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No one has rated this review as helpful yet
8.2 hrs on record
At first glance, Antichamber seems kind of daunting. A game that breaks rules and bends the world around you? Sounds messy, confusing, and full of trial-and-error. Happily, that's not really the case. Though it enjoys playing around with unconventional and unexpected level design, there's nothing particularly strange or out there about this game. It's just a solid, well-paced, enjoyable puzzle game that'll probably run you 5-9 hours depending on how much of a completionist you are.

There are a few hiccups along the way: a couple of minor technical issues disrupt the immersion a little bit, but the game's not broken by any means. Once or twice, a puzzle took me 10x as long as it should have just because a simple mechanic was never really explained, but again, that never ruined the experience. The atmosphere hints at some sort of minimalist story, but in the end there's no actual narrative—not that there needs to be one.

Those downsides are strongly outweighed by the good parts. The unique visual style looks much better in motion than it does in screenshots. The game's mindbending navigational chaos is counterbalanced by puzzles that you can't fail (or, at the least, that you can easily reset) and a world map that turns out to be extremely helpful for getting around. Furthermore, once the game does introduce a rule, it's consistent; once you learn something about the world, you can rely on that knowledge for the rest of your playthrough.

The end result is a highly satisfying and easily recommendable puzzle experience. If you're vaguely in the mood for this kind of thing, don't hesitate in picking it up.
Posted June 27, 2015.
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8 people found this review helpful
1 person found this review funny
1.9 hrs on record
I really WANTED to like this game. I'd heard such great things about it, and it seemed like it should be right up my alley. Unfortunately, it was just let down.

First, the gameplay. Nidhogg has simple but slightly awkward controls that certainly can be mastered but aren't particularly fluid on their own. If you're expecting fighting-game style precision, you're going to be disappointed. Once you get past the tutorial, the movement options feel fuzzy and unreliable. The basic combat is... okay. Most actions happen so quickly that it's humanly impossible to react to them, so it's mostly about anticipation and taking risks, and be prepared for a number of frustrating deaths where it doesn't even look like you were touched by the opponent's sword.

I realize that everything I just wrote is directly contrary to what most other critics are saying about the game, but I can only call it like I see it. I've played plenty of other games in this niche, and they all felt better than Nidhogg.

The one place where the game is fun is local co-op, which is the entire point of the game I suppose, but it's fun for the "wrong" reasons. Playing with a group of friends makes all of the "screw you, that was stupid" moments fun, because you all get to taunt each other the whole time. So basically, the game is fun with friends precisely *because* of the stupid and lopsided moments that in any other situation would just be frustrating.

Claims that the game's graphics are "beautiful" are overstated. There are one or two impressive setpieces that will probably catch your eye, but the game as a whole isn't particularly nice-looking. The style is unique and expressive, but it's not objectively pleasing by any measure. Also, the game really needs a colorblind setting, because my character is practically invisible to me against the backdrop of the second stage.

My final complaint, which others have echoed, is that there's not nearly enough content to justify the $15 price tag. I normally don't mind paying a little extra for a good game, but this is definitely more of a $5 title. If it's on sale for that much and you're looking for a new game to play at parties, maybe this is for you, but otherwise you're not missing much by passing it up.
Posted September 25, 2014. Last edited September 25, 2014.
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Showing 1-4 of 4 entries