Recent reviews by K. Digm

A golden modern classic of a roguelike, in it's perfected form.

This game feels like an endless nauseating dream, in the best way possible.
The kind of dream you'd remember your entire life. A visit to a surreal place that can be beautiful, grotesque, mystifying and maliciously creepy.
Unique and enthralling!

A deceptively quaint-looking game with a great sense of fun and freedom.
With the current overwhelming amount of roguelike build-maker auto-fire games, it was pleasantly surprising to see a game that actually gives you freedom and flexibility in making builds, fun characters to pivot your gameplay style around.
Definitely worth looking into, despite the simplistic, almost newgrounds-y visual style.

A perfect capture of the roguelike genre. Simple on the outside, but incredibly enjoyable.

It's tremendously unfortunate.
For every step forward the sequel takes, it takes five steps backwards. I've been waiting for it with bated breath.

1) Traps. Sure was a lot of them in EG1. Most of them you never use, they are clunky, need a trigger system... So what if we simplified and streamlined them? In EG2, you can get unique traps from loot quests too - that's a great idea! However, overall there are very few traps, most of them do the same ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ thing, and ALL OF THEM can be harmlessly, easily TURNED OFF by any agent, no matter how low-level. Harming traps deal microscopic amounts of damage (Sure feels nice to shave off 1/6 of an investigator's health after catching him in a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ LASER WALL)

2) Sure felt like there was a lot to read in EG1, right? Quests, descriptions, missions, all of it written. Wouldn't it be grand if we had voice acting? As it turns out, no. No it wouldn't be. EG2, while doing fine job setting the voices up, completely overloads you with mediocre, empty "cutscenes" of two 3d models talking to each other. Having dialogue with your henchmen when you hire them is damn lovely, so much more personality. Having dialogue over *every* minute step of EVERY side mission?! Along with your Evil GENIUS acting like a literal drooling idiot? Maximillian was an inventor before he became evil, how the ♥♥♥♥ is he denser than a goon with a club? (Cherry on the cake being that apparently all geniuses share dialogue word for word, and hearing utter stupidity spill forth from Emma or Zalika would be pure torture)

3) What about them world missions, eh? EG1 sure felt pretty random and unfair at times, with you feeling like you got screwed over with missions killing your minions by the handfuls. EG2 improves upon it by making the most insipid excuse for world missions I've seen. This is what a MOBILE game would have as content. Every part of every Force of Justice is exactly beat by beat the same. Same missions, one to one. You click, you wait by the timegate, you get what you want.

4) TImegate, that's a harsh word, you might be thinking. But no, EG2 is the most egregious example of game padding I have seen in a non-mobile game. It is the sole reason I can't bring myself to play it any more. Every SINGLE loot mission has, from what I've seen, at least five or more separate world missions, SEVERAL research projects you need to complete (while halting your own research for that, aint no pausing in this game to resume later). All of them the same, save for flavor text and a """humorous""" cutscene. Every side mission is padded to be like a chunk of main story. Thank god you can do many side missions at once, right?

5) You can only do one side mission at a time. At all times. On main quest, one side story. Side stories, which, again, are incredibly bloated and lengthy, with MANY times your minions having to depart to the world, you halting your research, all that, CAN NOT be paused OR ABANDONED in any way. You have to painstakingly do one, only THEN you can do another. Getting through your backlog of side missions is a horrendously boring and work-like task.

6) Research, my absolute favorite part of EG1, was bastardized into a heap of nothing. There are no developments or surprises. The entire tech tree is visible from the first second of building a lab, separated into boring tiers which are locked behind story quests. How do you research? Pick, throw same, standardized amount of money at it (Researching a stun baton rack costs the same as researching a nuclear reactor, just because they're in the same tier), wait by the timegate, and you're done. There are no unique research machines to buy - you just buy colliders like computers, the more the merrier, with the game encouraging you to spam as many duplicate pieces of equipment as possible.



This game obviously came presentation-first. Graphics, music, style, models, all of it is FANTASTIC. Several islands to choose from - that's also a very fun idea. I still hope that perhaps one day, one fateful day, perhaps an overhaul mod by loyal fans of the original would somehow fix it, but I can't even hold that hope. This game is fundamentally empty and misdesigned. To "fix" it would mean to remake 80% of the game aspects nearly from scratch. And with greedy marketing campaigns, peddling Season Passes to a product so tremendously substanceless, it is painfully obvious that this game came from a simple executive desire to cash in on a unique game from the past.

Could it pull a No Man's Sky? Through great effort and vision prevail and turn EG2 into a great game to be EG1's true successor somewhere in the future? No.

In no way could I expect RoR2 to be such a fantastic game. Unbelievably well transferred style from tasteful 2D pixel art to 3D, gameplay that is a great blend of familiar and new. Old enemies, old characters, familiar thrills and joy.

This game is SO ENDLESSLY SATISFYING!

I admit, it was more of an impulse purchase for me, just because I like bugs and stuff.
What I got inside exceeded expectations over and over again!
1) Controls are fantastic. It's been a good while since I felt so good just controlling a character. Bouncy, nimble, precise, and the surroundings are matching too! Platforming is executed fantastically. Traversing Hallownest alone is a pleasure to experience. Movement-enhancing upgrades in the game itself are amazing too. Nothing excessive, they all fit perfectly into the world, none of them feel useless or overpowered!
2) Atmosphere is delightful. Gorgeous designs, cute made-up language for the bug people... Cute, simplistic designs of the characters mixes well with the detailed beauty of the world. Many times it made me just gawk at the visuals, at the art. The feeling of sorrow and regret that fills Hallownest's ruins is quite deep, too.
3) Combat is exciting! While enjoyably simple at first, it gets more and more fine details, giving you plenty of time to accommodate to each new mechanic... And, in time, you'll be dealing with enemies with beautiful precision and method! Being hurt is meaningful, it disrupts your flow intentionally, so you have to focus. Focus is a pretty strong theme in the game, after all! Landing hits, killing enemies, parrying attacks - all of it feels very firm, strong and juicy! DIfferent kinds of battles make you employ different tactics, and wide array of Charms allow you to do just that! Moderately challenging, the game will test your skills later on indeed.
4) Mechanics, all of them! From currency to shopkeeps, from travels to resting to using Soul to focus-heal yourself, even freeing grubs from jars, all of it is rewarding and satisfying. To keep the review short - it's all a glorious display of how to make the player enjoy every aspect of the game, rather than concentating on just one.
5) The world is rich! And it's an understatement! Full to the brim with varied characters, friendly and not, secrets, environments, immense plethora of enemy types. So much effort, so much to explore, to experience, to witness.

I can't find one downside to all of this plenty of finesse. The best game I've played in a very long time. Art, music, gameplay, combat, story - Hollow Knight has it all. I can very fiercely recommend it. A true gem of modern indie gaming!

It just feels right, man. Feels right in all the right places. It took a while for Grim Dawn to come out, but was worth the wait. Nowadays, when games are just jumping one disappointment development train to another, Grim Dawn is a fresh, relaxing, tightly-crafted sunbeam. Developers creating stuff like that must be endorsed. Thanked!

I've never seen humanity embodying such idiocy.