Recent reviews by bledcarrot

I'd give this a middling review if I could, but since most of the other reviews have been positive I'm going with the negative to highlight what I think are some shortcomings with the game.

To be clear where I'm coming from, I love hardcore survival games, and I'm mostly into the mechanics of games like this rather than the story. I'm big on games like Dead in Bermuda, Dead in Vinland, Frostpunk, etc, and I bought this game because it looked like it was in a similar vein. My biggest criticism of the game is that it largely sacrifices a focus on the survival mechanics for its narrative. So, if you're okay with that, then disregard the negative rating, because the game is nicely polished, has a good story, and interesting characters.

It's just that it never really lets you get into the survival aspect of things. It wasn't much of a challenge on normal. There were no really difficult decisions I had to make and I finished the game with everyone but two people surviving. These died during narrative choices. Resource management didn't represent much of a challenge and you never really get a chance to establish yourself, because the game keeps moving you onwards to new camps, which don't really represent any new challenges but just give you more of the same. It's really one of those games that gives you a veneer of survival mechanics, but you can tell that there hasn't been heaps of thought into giving them the depth that other games in that vein do. These games are all about their balance and the tough emergent trade-offs that you get presented with, requiring difficult decisions, and I felt that this was largely lacking from the game.

Having said that, the story is nice, and it was a pretty fun little playthrough. So, I would say if you're looking for a legit survival experience, this is probably not worth full price.

Great little game! If you like rogue-lites and turn based survival then this will scratch that itch for a few hours. The mechanics are simple, but fun. The art style is nice. Would have loved everything scaled up a little more, in terms of biomes, items, vehicles, etc, but there's enough there to make a single play through feel fresh and the ending manages to ramp up the difficulty without making things jarring or unfair.

This game has good intentions but feels like it fails to achieve what it's setting out to do because it's let down by some really poor game mechanic design choices. For example, there is no real way of being prepared for combat. It's blind luck as to whether the opponent you come across is level 2 or level 4, the only way you'll find out is by clicking on their icon. Once you have selected to investigate their icon, you are locked into a fight with them, with no chance to retreat, and you can't even use your potions in the screen prior to the battle, which would at least give you some strategic chance of defeating an enemy that out-levels you. That makes for a very frustrating game. Added to this is the fact that the trading mechanics are completely pointless, as you can see on the overmap all the prices for goods in other cities, meaning it's simply a matter of buying cheap in one city and trekking over to another one where it's expensive.

I've only put 2.5 hours into this game, so I've only played a small part of the map, but these are fundamental design flaws, imo, that keep me from enjoying this as a game. The game actively works to rob you of your strategic influence on outcomes.

Dead Age 2 has attempted to go more complex in its mechanics, but it's missed the survival and rogue-like mark.

This game is too easy. After a few playthroughs on Normal, I started a new character on Hardcore and didn't take the upgrade medals. I'm a good way into it and it's been fun, but very easy still. The combat is fun, but gets repetitive once you work out your routine, and food, water, snacks, and medical equipment are all too readily available to be much of a worry. You can buy enough food and water from the independents early game not to have to worry about it for the first three or four days and nights.. Once you have the garden set up, and someone with some levels in biology, you can generate enough food and water not to have to worry about it from then on.

The rogue-like mechanics are out of whack, too I played a couple of times on Normal and went to start a new game and it told me I had 55 upgrade medals, which translated to significant skill point upgrades so that I could start the game early-specialised in two or three areas. Given how easy I've found the game on Hardcore without the upgrade medals, I can only imagine what it would be like on Normal and taking the medals. These kind of rogue-likes are supposed to give you incremental progress that keeps each run through challenging and allows you to progress a little bit further each time. See For The King. It just feels like the developers have put the mechanics in but not bothered to balance them properly, but the balance is everything in these games.

Maybe I'm not the intended audience here, I like my survival and rogue-likes to be pretty punishing. Any readers should keep that in mind and take my views accordingly, but this game just didn't hit what it feels like it set out to do.

The game has only been released, so patches may address any or all of these criticisms. I'll come back and change my vote if that happens, because maybe this is something that can be fixed just by tweaking the numbers.

This is a beautiful adventure game done right. Yes, it's not quite the hardcore Sierra style adventure of old, but it trails its own path. The humour and charm are just spot on and the ending was beautiful.

I loved everything about it.

I'm so glad this landed in the laps of the Odd Gentlemen, because it's clear they have a lot of love for the series and put serious thought and care into making this a worthy entry. And it is.

I love point & click adventure games, but I'm usually disappointed with recent entries in to the genre. They're always missing something. Either the puzzles are too easy and poorly designed, the story is boring, or the humour falls flat. Paradigm nails everything. It's an instant classic, as far as I'm concerned. Up there with Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, and the Space Quests, still some of the best adventure games ever made. I hope they've made some money out of this, because the amount of love and attention that's gone in to this game is so apparent. I look forward to future games!

60 PARSECS! is really nice to look at and has some potentially really interesting survival mechanics but, like the developers previous game 60 seconds, it just falls short in the execution of those mechanics. The worst part is the random deaths, which was the same in the first. You'll be playing along, managing your resources, struggling to stay just slightly ahead of the curve so you can proceed in the game, and them some random event will occur and if you don't have an item needed to offset the event everyone in you crew will instantly die. They can go from OK health to dead in one bang. That's just silly. Punish the player, sure, damage their health to the point where they'll have to scramble to get medikits or whatever, but don't outright kill them on a dice roll. It just feels annoying more than anything, when I have to restart a good run because of something so random.

Anyway, this is one issue, another is that the survival mechanics just don't end up being all that complex. Don't get me wrong, the game has some fun, and for a couple of dollars it's worth a play, but it just disappoints in terms of what it could potentially be.

Chook & Sosig is a short and sweet point & click adventure that's beautifully illustrated, brimming with charm, and that serves as a solid debut for a first-time developer. It falls short on scope and length, and the puzzle design could do with a little more thought, but for a couple of hours of entertainment it works.

You can read my full review here:

https://www.justadventure.com/2019/06/20/chook-sosig-walk-the-plank-review/

Pathologic 2 is an intense experience. It's not fun. It's enjoyable in the way that achieving something really difficult is enjoyable - only after you've been through the hell and you're out the other side do you really appreciate what it's about. But it's brilliant. It's refreshing to see developers make good on an uncompromising vision. And it's refreshing to see developers who understand where meaningful choices come from. For choices to matter, there has to be a cost. Something has to be sacrificed. You choose one thing and it means you're closed off from doing another. In an era where games are designed to cater to our fear of missing out, where all the game's possibilities are presented as options - join every faction, do every quest, save very NPC - Pathologic 2 is resolute in its commitment to cost. Everything has a price here. And it's a more meaningful experience because of it.

You can read my full review of Pathologic 2 here:

https://www.justadventure.com/2019/06/13/pathologic-2-review/

The Darkside Detective is a game that lives or dies on its theme. If the whole 'supernatural detective' trope is your thing, and if you love shows like The Twilight Zone, The X-Files, and Twin Peaks, then you'll feel right at home in Twin Lakes, the setting for The Darkside Detective. You play Francis McQueen, a bumbling detective who, along with his goofy sidekick Dooley, are charged with unravelling a number of mysterious cases popping up around town. The game is riddled with throwbacks to classic horror/science fiction television and movies, and styles itself on the humor of the old Lucasart and Sierra adventure games, so if this is your jam then it may just be worth a look. The jokes are a little hit or miss, however, and the puzzles are far too easy and lack any sort of careful design. But the game has a certain charm that carries it.

You can read my full review here:

https://www.justadventure.com/2019/05/26/the-darkside-detctive-review/