Recent reviews by GoodCoffee

Before playing The Chant I had some gradual exposure to it through the Steam store page, and I wasn’t very compelled to play it because the trailers on the Steam store page the only exposure I got, and the trailers on the store page seemed to be hyping the game up a lot. While I appreciated the polish on the trailers, it didn’t seem to compel me enough to buy the game. With the obvious cosmetic microtransactions that are on the store page ($1.99 Spiritual Retreat Outfit, and $1.99 70s VFX Filter Mode), it further disincentivizes me to buy the game. But I’ve played it now and have some thoughts.


✅ The animations and cutscenes are smooth, and impressive. – As this is Brass Token’s (the developer) first foray into a commercial game collectively, the mastery over animation sequences and cutscenes with the main character and tertiary characters is impressive. The seamlessness with which we walk through the world of The Chant is wonderful, and feels good. Seeing as this is a story heavy game, I appreciated these sequences of ordinary cutscenes and interactive cutscenes.

✅ Boss fights – This is legitimately the most organic part of the entire game. I won’t give an overview of every boss in the game, but I will review the first two. For me, every time I have been engaged in a boss fight, I understand what I am meant to do, and, despite further criticisms of other systems I will have below, it has made the game’s existent systems more enjoyable.
The first boss fight seems misplaced and a bit random, but very enjoyable, as the mechanics seem to be fresh. The boss is not nonthreatening and gives just enough pressure to feel anxiety inducing. To be able to interact with the horror in the game gives it an additional sharpness to the feeling of horror.
The second boss fight is a little less straightforward, as it does involve one of the game’s systems of damage that I will speak of later. Despite this system that is a little bit confusing in the first place, it felt good in this boss fight to be able to pick up resources around an arena, not be punished for crafting weapons, and to fight back against something horrific.

✅ Lore surrounding enemies & sketches of enemies – I really enjoyed the sketches of what the enemies looked like and the explanations of what they were, as this was great worldbuilding for the game. It made the enemies have a bit more depth, and the illustrations were interesting, too.

🟡The Neutral🟡

🟡 Aesthetic and story tie-in An observation I made from the very first parts of the story is the setup of the story seems somewhat awkward as we aren’t given a lot of context as to what the trauma the main character is enduring. Additionally, everything seems to hinge on the cult aesthetic and the two dimensions of this as well. For me, it didn’t need to have this element of what may be perceived as realism. It could break over these edges and be ambitious.

🟡 Conversational decisions system I feel totally unsure about the decisions that you can make in the conversations you can have with characters. I understand that maybe these conversational decisions have an outcome or impact at the end of the game, but trying to force the conversational decisions tie into the overcomplicated experience system seems a bit frustrating and seems to make people want to behave in a very particular way when they are making conversational decisions in this game.

❌The Bad❌

❌ Obvious cosmetic microtransations 💲 – I understand that one of the objectives of making a video game and putting it out there is to make money and to help people make a living. I understand that. But whenever there are $1.99 outfits and $1.99 VFX filters on the dlc for the first game that you put out as an indie studio, it is entirely frustrating to observe the strong possibility that in the future there will be games that the studio will produce with the same cosmetic microtransactions. Now, I realize the studio has also put out a free DLC. That’s great! But there are still cosmetic microtransactions.

❌ Combat system of the game wants to be doing too much – In the first few hours of the game I have unlocked what I can only describe as a red weapon ability, a blue weapon ability, and a yellow weapon ability. Additionally, I have had a corresponding yellow spiritual ability, blue spiritual ability, and red spiritual ability be unlocked. Now… With this as a foundation for the game, there are also corresponding red health bar enemies, blue health bar enemies, and yellow health bar enemies. Having a new type of enemy introduced in every section seems to be a bit much.
Currently, I am still confused as to whether I need to use each corresponding color with the corresponding enemy. I understand this may be an accessibility feature, and having the colors is understandable in this case. But overall, I don’t think that we need different colored health bars for different enemies. It felt like it was trying to do too much. And I felt like every time I had to switch to the exact weapon that corresponded with the health bar of the enemy…

❌ The game is playing me, I am not playing it – There is an idea that I would like to enjoy playing the game and have fun. Fun for this game for me was to be able to experience a great, and memorable horror game that was an indie studio’s foray into commercial video games. This was not my experience I had, sadly. It felt like it could have been an adventure horror game with light survival horror/combat elements.
The real point here with this criticism is that I didn’t feel as though I was playing the game. I felt as though I was merely responding to what the game had to give me rather than having a good time or experiencing something horrifying. That and the writing was also mediocre, but the setup and idea for the story are great.


I am somewhat disappointed with this as I had looked forward to playing this horror game for a long time. What I have ended up is not what I was expecting, as I was hopeful. On its face, the microtransactions immediately gives a sour taste, and as the game sputters along, it feels as though the scope of the game in total could have been reduced, and it could have been a great game.

Light to a medium 4 out of 10.
❌❌❌✅✅

I will likely come back to do a more formal review of this game, but I wanted to at least note that this was a decent entry into Supermassive's catalogue while I still have the memories fresh from last weekend when I completed it. Other than this game, I recently completed House of Ashes, which I didn't review, but I enjoyed nonetheless. Usually with Supermassive games, I don't think too hard, I turn my brain off, and I enjoy the narrative drama.

As far as the story is concerned, I maintained an interest in it pretty much the whole time, and I did end up completing about 90% of the game in one day while I was streaming it to my friends. Since this is, after all, a Supermassive game, you can anticipate that they stick to their tried and true formula of a horror drama. Despite this, it had enough twists and turns throughout that I wasn't necessarily expecting to keep me interested and keep the formula balanced.

The one issue maybe that I did have is that they had a wide spectrum of depth with characters: with characters ranging from stereotypes of certain archetypes to characters that maintained some intrigue throughout the story and which I would characterize as having their own distinct personalities. On the opposite side of the primary "good" characters, I also wanted to recognize that Supermassive essentially sticks to their same formula of interactive horror dramas with people that could be labeled as obviously good and a monster that could be labeled as obviously bad; but their take on the monster in this game -- being vague so there aren't spoilers-- manages to stay hidden for a good bit of the story and stays fresh throughout the game. It reminds me of their first hit Until Dawn.

All in all, I would recommend The Quarry on a deep discount. Maybe $20. Not the $59.99 price tag that it demands currently. I was able to get it on a Humble Bundle, but I wouldn't recommend going out of your way to get it. It only really ends up being about 10h of gameplay anyway.

Delivery Man is a simple survivor horror game that doesn’t pretend to be anything it’s not. It’s a what you see is what you get type of game. There is a great story that’s bundled in the VHS style, and blocky main character. Being tasked to deliver food to a house, and with a simple premise, you end up getting into a lot more than you bargained for. For as cheap as this game is, it is clearly a pretty good product for only having spent $2.99, with a clear story and enjoyable gameplay. Let’s get into it.


✅ Price Point – Normally price point isn’t something that I actively point out as a reason why I would get a game, but whenever there is a game that is $2.99, my expectations are low. With my expectations being low, I was surprised at what Delivery Man had to… deliver. It starts out with a simple premise, and just whenever you think it’s going to end – no spoilers here either --, it doesn’t end. In fact, you’re about halfway through the game. This impressed me a lot and it felt good to be able to play it for much longer than I expected. These micro games with their stories, and charming atmospheres are great.

✅ Sound Design – I am not a buff on sound design, nor do I understand the terminology surrounding it, but from a layman’s perspective, the sound design was excellent. Being able to go into a certain room and feel a shift in atmosphere because I know I’m probably in a save room because of the shift in music (and I recognize this is done in Resident Evil as well) is interesting. It adds extra layers to the game. Not only that, but whenever I wanted to enter a later part of the game, there is more ominous music that accompanies going further into the darkness. This was a pleasant surprise for me. Not to mention the music that accompanies boss fights. Oh yes, there’s boss fights in this game, too. That as well as the more quiet moments of the game where you don’t have to deal with enemies skulking about the halls in this mansion.

✅ Storyline that is found in notes is clear all the way through, and leaves anticipation for the player of the game. This was something that I almost didn’t necessarily want to pay attention to because I thought this was a cheaper game that I would complete easily and would lack a story. Not only was I wrong but for something that is this short and smooth, it did have somewhat of a story that could be expended upon if the developer of the game saw fit.


❌ Length of the game – I understand that while this is one of those games that you get because it is shorter and it’s something you can play quickly, it seems like there was a huge opportunity here to expand the storyline because I know the developer could do that. I suppose the criticism here is I wish it was longer and I could see the characters have their personalities developed throughout the game.

❌ Lack of polish/rushed – This is a difficult one for me because, while I recognize this is either a small independent studio, or a solo developer, there were some things that I felt broke the immersion of the game for me. A perfect example of this is that some doors will open on the side of the hinges rather than the door handle. (I don’t think this is intentional.) Additionally, whenever I had completed fighting one boss, I received an injured hit from the dead boss, and a cutscene did not initiate that was supposed to get me an item to progress in the game. It’s things like this that maybe I would wonder if there could be some polish applied and this could change, and I would bet it almost certainly could change the quality of life of the game noticeably.

I enjoyed this micro horror adventure through an environment that is clearly inspired by Resident Evil. It reminds me of Murderhouse and Cannibal Abduction. While it doesn’t have the same level of polish as those games, it could reach a little higher with another game and I would almost certainly think that it would not only meet the level of polish those games have, but almost certainly exceed for I see the developer’s writing ability and careful crafting of a storyline. I would absolutely recommend this game to others if you are looking for a quick horror survival game that has a decent storyline.


Light to a strong 6 out of 10. ✅✅✅➖➖

A living, grotesque error. Cruelty Squad has taken me a while to digest, and now that I seem to be in a much smoother flow of being able to write gaming reviews, I wanted to give this game review of it a full rundown. From the opening cinematic, the menu music, the sounds made during dialogue, the highly disturbing things that I only want to censor while repeating, Cruelty Squad presents something that I didn’t have much certainty of whenever I first picked it up.

I couldn’t help but laugh every single time I booted up the game and the horrible PowerPoint-esue serif font of CRUELTY SQUAD greets me with the unmistakeable music. It filled me with a sense of just complete freshness that at first seemed pretty bad, but eventually, after some adjustment to the surreal, maximalist art that it gives you. It didn’t seem right, but after some time, I arrived to having a sense of reverence and respect for it. Let’s get into it, though.

✅ Idiosyncratic, eclectic art style that I have not seen before in a video game. I'm saying this mostly with direct reference to the visual style. There are other games that remind me of this vaguely that also land in a visual space with Cruelty Squad, but I can't immediatley think of a game that reminds me of this one visually.

It is so much from the very presentation of it in the advertising: colors that are oversaturated, character models that are a little too sharp, closeups of people's teeth while they are talking accompanied by what I can only seem to describe at this moment as mumbling. It's all a bit of a fever dream.

✅ Bizarre stock market mechanic - I won't spoil too much about this, but there is a stock market mechanic in the game where you are able to invest in different things, and upon doing more research about this, there are some things that are more wisely invested in at particular points in the game. This is cool, but also seems like an odd inclusion. It's certainly on theme for the name of the company: Consumer Softproducts.

✅ The story in the game takes you through intense and consistently unexpected turns. I couldn't have predicted that the game's story would end up the way it went, but just as the art has shown me, nothing here can have a sense of what is exactly expected. It does have a storyline, but I'm not sure the line is drawn in a way that is neat at all.

➖ The design of some of these levels reminds me of 007 Nightfire (this game specifically because I didn't have the opportunity to play old James Bond games other than this one on the PC.) The open levels, needing to be an assassin, etc. It felt like an older game, and often it does have the feel of an older game.

➖ The dichotomy of being meaningful and rejecting expectations of what might be expected in a game. The landlord in the game is literally what looks to be a blob, the characters who are citizens that have dialogue is offensive and disturbing--and sometimes it can be perfectly normal with an npc uttering something like 'You seem cool.', which is both reaffirming and a bit of an emotional seesaw-- and any sense of comfort seems to be stripped away at the outset. Once you ground yourself in this world for some hours--and I only seemed to be able to take a couple of hours of this at a time--then it seems to make more sense. There's a feeling of existential dread that creeps throughout the game and never seems to leave.

❌✅ The Reload mechanic - this is the first time that I would rate this in both a bad and a good way, but ultimately having the bad outweigh the good.. The reload mechanic is very deliberately bad. Eventually it seems to flow well in the game, but in particular moments where you seem to need to reload fast, it seems to be more of a burden than a humorous feature which it seems to set out to be initially.

❌✅ Unrelentingly bad visuals - Again, same as the above -- while this does seem to be one of the most endearing qualities of the game, and I haven't fully explored the visuals, I do feel as though I have some difficulty being able to play this game for how it looks visually by default. It is inherently difficult for me to digest visually, but it is also satisfying. So while this can be a good aspect, I do find that there is some difficulty with being able to say "I can sit down and just play this for a long time, because everything I am seeing is smooth constantly," because it definitely isn't.

It feels like in order for me to capture what I really think of the game, I need to be running on very little sleep, write my entire review in comic sans, and have someone be talking to me at the same time while I try to write down all my thoughts. Then it might more accurately represent how I felt whenever I played this game. With all of the difficulties that I have had with this game, I would highly recommend it for this price point if you are someone who is open to, at the outset, not being comfortable with the way you experience playing games and consistently having your expectations subverted.

Strong to a light 7 out of 10. ✅✅✅➖➖

I love supporting certain games in early access that I can see have active development, and plans to take flight into a 1.0 version. This seemed like one of those games to me because I bought this earlier on in its development before we had the steam achievements, and whenever there was a giant label below the main room that said something like “we will implement this feature soon,” or something. And they did. Which I love this because even something as simple as this shows follow through.

These smaller observations out of the way, let’s see about reviewing Potion Craft.

✅ Early Access growth path to V1.0 and official release - I bought this game in early access because it's an interesting concept before I saw dozens of games that released that were related to potion making. (Here I'm not looking at release dates necessarily, but for me this seemed like an original idea and a distinct simulator game). Over the course of the early access and release, there have been noticeable quality of game improvements that have been excellent. (For example, the haggle mechanic. You used to have to hit the skill checks and then inevitably -- hopefully if you got the max amount -- you would have to hit a final skill check on the left or right. This isn't the case anymore. When you've maxed out, you've maxed out. I think this is a great improvement and doesn't force you to have to try and manage hitting a bunch of skill checks to hopefully get near the max.)

This is one simple observation that I’m making regarding the game that is a quality of life improvement, but the collective of all the changes that have been made about this game are important. It’s what makes the game better in general.

✅ Distinct art style -- despite the varying, sharp shades of brown that color the entirety of the game, and that might normally seem as an eye sore, the art style is distinct. Not to mention that there are plenty of other colors with the patrons, the UI in the potion making screen, the greenery, etc. But there is a shade of sepia over almost everything. Despite all this, I like how it is. There are some hints of realism while maintaining a somewhat cartoonish style of the patrons visiting the potion shop that you have. This is a noticeable positive for me.

✅ Music is highly characterized to what I would imagine Medieval times would be. I don't know if the music is actually accurate, but again, the point is not to be accurate to what exactly Medieval times was, it’s more just “does this seem pretty original and interesting,” and it seems original to me. It becomes more of a background feature, too, after a while, and I am inclined to turn it down because it loops, but it is enjoyable nonetheless.



➖ Gameplay variance is low -- This is mostly an observation of the game as this is mostly stating the game in general, and it doesn't have to be a lot of things. Really the thing here is that whenever you buy this game, you are buying a game where you craft potions. This is the primary thing you are doing. This isn't a game like Moonlighter where you are able to get gear that you later sell in a shop and buy upgrades and such. No. You are making potions, you are selling potions, you are upgrading your workstation. That is mostly it. I enjoy this, though. For $15? Absolutely.



❌ Polarization of the game due to the gameplay itself - I can't quite place this idea, but whenever I play the first game that a developer publishes (not makes, mind you. I realize game developers make a lot of games before they publish their first game, etc.) I feel as though it happens that the game catches this distinct quality of "Okay, let's make this thing, get it out there, so that we can understand how this works as far as developing, marketing, patching, listening to feedback, etc. goes, and then we'll either make a new game that we actually want to make (For this I think of "An Airport for Alines Currently Run by Dogs" being published first by Strange Scaffold and then they make "Space Warlord Organ Trading SImulator") or improve upon this existing product (like Hopoo games and the Risk of Rain series.)" I know that's not succinct, but I'm hoping someone understands that thought.
More importantly, here, the game does one thing -- make potions. I get how this could be frustrating to some, but whenever the core gameplay mechanic is presented to you almost instantly, and there's an expectation of this very particular gameplay loop netting you hundreds of hours of gameplay, maybe a readjustment of expectations is necessary.

Whenever there’s a game out there that shows gradual improvement over time, is a game that is the first game a developer publishes, continues to support development after the game is released actively, and is a decent game, I want to give it credit where it is due.
With original artwork, original music, a core gameplay mechanic that seems to have enough polish to function well, and much more, I can absolutely recommend this game for people who want a game that doesn’t try to do too much, and you just want to make some potions for people.

Strong 6 to a light 7 out of 10. ✅✅✅➖➖

If I'm really thinking about this, I never intended to play this game. I remember whenever it released I thought "Wow, this looks like it could be quite decent.” Like the quality of the graphics, and the humor, etc. But there was a bundle on Humble Bundle called "Spaced Out" that also included other games that I wanted to play, so I thought "Why not?" So here I am reviewing it on the other side.


✅ Somewhat clever situations - There are some moments I don't quite expect, and some decisions I don't expect as far as game mechnics go. It's great. Maybe it's borrowed from other games but I can't remember certain games in recent memory. I enjoyed the pieces here that felt refreshing and that it's somewhat self aware.

✅ Homage to other video games - There is definitely a few references that seem to play clear homage to Halo. One of the guns, some of the enemies, and some of the environments as well. But this seemed to be mostly tasteful.


➖ An upper limit of postmodernism - I'm not a fan of postmodernism myself, but I can't help but make observations that this game seems exceptionally postmodern. The constant, unceasing stream of irreverence, the lack of stable identity of the main character, and some strong situational irony. I understand all this, but it's an observation if people appreciate this kind of thing.


❌ High amounts of taking concepts to their limits - Talking guns. Yes. I think this does seem like a novel idea. I see this as something that can potentially be interesting, but the trouble here is that after you've had a certain gun out for a while, you will hear the same voice lines over and over. I might find this to be an interesting concept, too, possibly if there weren’t so many repeating lines and if all of the guns weren’t blatantly sardonic.

❌ Intentional annoyance – I have never actually played a game until now that it seems like the deliberate intention is to annoy. There is a section in the game where there is a character that does not go away, cannot be dismissed, and cannot be eliminated. He speaks to you about himself constantly until you reach another point in the game. For me, I didn’t want to be in this section at all so I rushed through it until the character left. I didn’t want to rush through anything, but this moment felt a bit surreal where I didn’t want to play the game at this part.

❌ AI seems too simple – Maybe this is too much to ask, but I found myself wanting to observe the AI to see what they would do in reaction to things I would do. I found that the AI didn’t seem to acknowledge ledges, for instance. A melee enemy would not acknowledge that I am jumping up and down a ledge to get to me. It saw the most straightforward path was around an obstacle around the ledge. This didn’t seem intuitive and like the AI was programmed to jump down a ledge. It seemed like an oversight.
Truly this was something that reminded me of whenever I reviewed Archeage . (I reviewed it negatively and with reason.) This had some small things that I liked, but nothing that really made me interested or want to come back to it. I felt as though playing it was a chore, a slog.

I can’t recommend this game. It seems somewhat unpolished and I could see its appeal for someone who would really enjoy postmodern shooters and could overlook the glaring technical pieces missing from this game, but this wasn’t for me.

Medium to a strong 3 out of 10.

❌❌❌❌➖

A caveat with this review: I am recommending this game for people who enjoyed Cannibal Abduction and are looking to pick this game up as well. This game is quite short, and I wouldn’t particularly recommend it unless you don’t mind a very short game.

A bite-sized, slasher horror experience that is enjoyable for people who enjoy the tension of knowing there is someone roaming the halls looking to get you. I unfortunately played this developer’s games in reverse chronological order, so this seemed like a downgrade from Cannibal Abduction, and it is, but I did enjoy it somewhat.

✅ Horror Atmosphere – Having already played Cannibal Abduction , I knew what I was in for. Scary chase sequences, terrifying atmosphere, great, dark environment, and more. This game sets the mood in the very beginning—and I won’t spoil what happens—and drags you into yet another scenario that instills fear in the player. A sense of helplessness to run, hide, or die.

✅ Unpredictability of the killer – Even though I played Cannibal Abduction, you could kindof feel when the killer was coming in this game. Whereas there’s much more of a sense of panic in this one, as the killer is faster, and can be anywhere. I don’t want to ruin the experience for anyone and won’t spoil why you know the killer is coming, but once you find out what I’m talking about, I’m certain you’ll be bound to enjoy it. There’s also a similar feeling of dread and suspense as you hear loud noise, intense music, and distinct voice lines from the killer when you encounter it.

✅ A Trap Room – Now, I won’t go too much into this, but there’s a note before the room and I truly felt as though I was in some house of horrors before I entered the trap room. I was also on edge as I moved throughout the trap room. Wonderful addition to the game, and definitely a high point of my playthrough.


❓ It’s pointless to run – Something that stripped away a certain layer of horror for me was the fact that whenever I did encounter the killer, even though I was given the ability to sprint, I never was able to outrun the killer. So eventually every time I heard an indication that the killer had seen me or I was around him, I’d just take my hands off the keyboard and let the killing commence. This also decreased the incentive to find a place to hide. (There’s some vast improvements on this in Cannibal Abduction, which I highly recommend.)

❓Things that lessened the scariness/Too many inaccessible areas, which seemed as obvious spawn points for the killer, and the killer partially seemed to run off of a timer but also certain scripted points as well. This led to me being much less scared. Also if I heard the killer and once I died enough times, I found that the killer was more of an obstacle/annoyance than a killer. (This, again, is of course remedied in Cannibal Abduction.)

❓ The inability to pause – Yes, I understand that your games are short. And yes, I understand it removes the element of being able to disengage whenever the killer has begun chasing you, but I don’t want to have to find a locker to hide in or something in order to have to go to the bathroom. There’s just something about being able to simply pause the game.

For people who would find the games by this developer in reverse chronological order, I would recommend this game after you’ve played Cannibal Abduction. It is a bit shorter than it as well. So that’s maybe another part that could be considered somewhat frustrating. And with all of these frustrations, and the lack of story, I still enjoy this game. I would recommend it mostly only for people who enjoyed Cannibal Abduction, but if you don’t have much time to play horror games and you want a low poly, dark horror game that’s kindof gritty, I would check this one out.

Strong 5 to a light 6 ❌❌✅✅

It feels a little odd to me to be sitting back down and writing about a game after a few months, really. I wanted to be increasing my freuquency with writing reviews, but that certainly didn't happen. I want to make that change, so I'll do that... one review at a time. First up we have Cannibal Abduction, which always feels odd for me to type or say because of how serious the title is. But it's also a pretty accurate/good title.


This game has an interesting place for me because I was almost instantaneously able to pick out the obvious reasons why I liked this game. There were clear points in my head that I stored and thought of that I didn't have to take notes about until I wrote this review that came back to me almost instantenously. So...

✅ Horror Atmosphere - With a name like Cannibal Abduction it already starts off very strong, taking itself pretty seriously with that name. The opening cutscene and the few other cutscenes that this game has are equally terrifying.

To almost immediately further the horrific nature of the game, we have the engagements with the primary enemy in the game. The first time I was engaged with this enemy, I was genuinely unsuspecting and immediately hit with a loud cue as well as some great music, and visuals. It definitely reminds me of the Run, Hide, or Die of the Outlast series. (a series that is one of my most enjoyed)

Without going too much into the story, because I don't want to give too much away about this game, it's definitely an experience worth having, because I felt a similar fear as to when I played outlast playing this low poly, retro game. Which was done well with the limitations imposed on it.

✅ Difficulties change how the game plays – This really increased the replayability aspect for me and oftentimes can be a point where we gripe and ask ourselves, “If I have only played this once and totally completed it, why should I buy it in the first place?” This game answers with not only a different game style with it being on “Hard” mode, but also an alternate ending (which I will not spoil!).
On normal, you’re met with a standard run and hide gameplay, but upon switching the difficulty to “Hard,” there is a description of what makes it harder, as well as things you’ll feel and realize throughout your playthrough of the game. Nevertheless, this adds a replayability aspect to a game that definitely wants you to enjoy it .


➖ Tank Controls Now, since this is in the Neutrals, we can really argue “nobody likes tank controls, etc.” Truth be told, I got so used to them that by the time I was in my hard playthrough dodging around things as much as I could, I felt as though the tank controls were natural and still reminded me of different games I’ve enjoyed from either older times like Silent Hill or newer titles like Resident Evil 4 (not the remake).

➖ the game is short – It seems as though this is potentially developed only by one person or a small team, so I realize there isn’t much room to complain or be concerned with the length of the game, and really, I enjoyed this game a lot. I am left wishing there was more of the game to enjoy, especially considering some of the story aspects.



❓ The Story – While I did enjoy the story, the cutscenes throughout, etc., I feel as though the game relies too heavily on notes that you find throughout the game, there are a handful of events that occur that add some story, but I found myself questioning: Well, what happened here? Or “Wait, was that it?” Things like that. Despite this, I did enjoy the story. I often wish I knew more because of the secret ending!

Cannibal Abduction definitely does well with creating a horror atmosphere that is memorable, and a story that is reminiscent of a horror movie from long ago… If you play the game, you’ll definitely see the resemblance. While the controls are a bit clunky, you can get used to them, and the inventory system seems borrowed from a resident evil game, the game delivers exactly what it wants to with a short, horror experience for people who enjoyed things like Outlast, but are yearning for a low poly horror experience in a claustrophobic house that seems inescapable.

Medium to a strong 7 out of 10 ✅✅✅

Wanted to leave this here as a placeholder, but upon installing this game EA downloads their launcher on your computer, and prioritizes itself on startup, which you can disable via the task manager. This is a tremendous downside.

I haven't truly put a whole lot of time into this game, but I am happy I'm sitting down and taking the time to review it. There are games that when I review them, I approach them methodically and have to really dig and think about aspects of the game I did or didn't like. For Boneraiser Minions, these things I pick up are easy and enjoyable to pick out and really talk about why I enjoyed it. So let's get into it.


For this game in particular and in my recent history of reviewing games I pick this up and think "where do I begin?" with the good. Which I think can usually be done with ease when we don't like something, but it's very pleasant when we feel this way when we do like something. I had a fantastic time playing this game and I reminisced on Vampire Survivors (which I'd love to review shortly as well) as I played this, but my mind expanded more the more I played this game, and I've barely scratched the surface, I think.

✅ High Build Variance - So in Boneraiser minions, you start out playing a particular starting character that has a set of starting traits. Now, I wonder... if there's high build variance, how many things can we select with just the starting class? There's a grid of 12 traits which help modify gameplay. The thing about these traits as well is you can keep them or take them away again. The game doesn't make you take certain things. And if you want to experiment or make things more difficult, you can. In addition to this first selectable character, there are 15 more characters to choose from (that I know of that I can select from the character selection screen). This is.. incredible. No DLC either to get these characters? Again, refreshing. Surprising. And even if there was a $1 or $2 DLC with 8 of these characters, I think I would understand as long as it wasn't clearly $200 worth of bundled dlc with characters.

In addition to these characters, we have upgrades that modify the game itself, upgrades that modify the arena in which you play, things to scale difficulty, and so much more. There seems to be this vast array of things which can add extra variance to the game, and I love this.

✅ Medium Learning Curve - So this is a plus and a minus. The reason why I say this is that it has about the same learning curve that Vampire Survivors does, but it requires a little more reading. The descriptions of upgrades and things are a little more wordy, but I think this game calls for it. I understand it. But aside from the longer item descriptions and sortof wondering what they do, once you've read it once or twice, you can pick them up and go. Also the actual Minions that you have, you learn what they do and there are just... so many combinations of minions you can have. This also refers back to the high build variance.

But.. you don't have to pull out your hair to learn this game. If you want the game to be complicated, it can be. I'm certain that once I play this more that I will get really lost in it. (I honestly just like to see my leaderboard score and where I landed!)

✅ The game has personality - Along with some clearly crude humor, there are some funny jokes nestled in the game, some self awareness from the game, and just overall distinct features of the game that gives it a good personality. (You can collect hats! And this is so fun and cute! ) To fight different bosses, to read different names of enemies, to see the flippant little texts that appear between waves of bad guys, it's all hilarious and fun.


➖ An Obvious Comparison - For me there is an obvious comparison between Boneraiser Minions (BM) and Vampire Survivors (VS) because they're in the same genre of roguelike. They play a bit differently, but I have just recently played VS for a little longer than this game, and I had a blast with it. I can easily see myself returning to it as well, and remembering everything. But I will say this: I do think that BM is its own game. It has its own personality, and its own feeling. Did it come out a few months after VS? Can I see the inspiration from VS to this game? Yes, and yes. But it definitely is its own game.


To me you don't have to find bad things in something good just to find bad things, but I think for me I can definietly leave some small feedback. Because there is one note I have for this game that I have as feedback.

❓ Let the user change the colors - Personally, I love the color scheme. I think it's great. But I would love it if I were able to change my colors in the game. I realize that the game has a distinctive color scheme, etc. And that there are certain other things that don't work if we were able to change the colors, but I wish maybe I was able to change the colors a bit. It would be nice! I'm thinking specifically here of B.I.O.T.A. and how it's pixel-y, but I am able to change the color scheme, and I LOVE it.


I have this idea that for every dollar you spend on a game, it's nice to get at least one hour of enjoyment out of it. This isn't a perfect theory, it's maybe not even original, but it's something that I've had as a decent rule of thumb for a while. With Boneraiser Minions, I can definitely not only observe the base price of the game while it's not on sale as being $4.99 (definitely comparable to Vampire Survivors and in more ways than just price), but if it's on sale, it's cheaper. If you do have a few extra dollars, this is an easy grab.

I can easily recommend this game to others, and especially people who have played and enjoyed Vampire Survivors . It is fun, and I enjoy the personality it has. I love the pixelated graphics, the gameplay, and the atmosphere. And I've really barely scratched the surface.


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1944570/Boneraiser_Minions/