Recent reviews by Calhoun's Curiosity

The Long Dark is not for everyone, but it has a laser focus on the core survival experience. I use The Long Dark as a way to escape into the wild without all the real danger that entails; It does that very well. It really commits to the feeling of apocalyptic isolation and being at the mercy of the natural world. Expect to be trapped inside by a blizzard as you slowly starve at least once. Expect to get frustrated. Expect to be overwhelmed. There is a lot of long term planning and nagging existential threats, but also a lot of downtime just walking through the beautiful landscapes. Maps are handcrafted, like Subnautica, so each region is made with intentionality. Play the story mode if you want, but don't be afraid to just jump into survival and have your own fun.

This game is not for someone looking to challenge their reflexes or even their strategic mind. This game is primarily about understanding people. If you're looking for some good examples of persuasion game-play, it's a great starting-point. It must have been play-tested to a T. Everything was intuitive, despite the experimental play. Furthermore, I felt like this game opened up a dialogue with me about what it is to be human and what consequences come with it. In that dialogue, it never felt like it was pushing for any particular answer; the game lets you choose your own answer. Despite that it also caught me dead wrong a few times. That is exceptional. It shows how well versed the devs are in the subject, how effective they are at expressing that through game-play, and how passionate they are about this game.

Exactly what you would expect. The game draws you in by daring you to try and fly just a little bit closer to the edge. You won't get a ton of hours out of it, but it is amazing for stress relief because of how it gets you to be in the moment. No mouse needed; you can play this anywhere.

Amazing design. This game is much more than meets the eye. Puzzles push you to keep thinking about cooking sausages in novel ways. You'll see.

The mechanics, like drone management and numbers-based combat, are unfun. There are several major issues from the terribly conceived, and just plain broken, save-slot system to physics glitches that send you cartwheeling through air. It's horribly underpolished and they plan on a full release early 2019!

If you are a true, perpetually-unsatisfied perfectionist gamer, this game is for you. This is an FTL esque rouge-lite. Like FTL, the story is basically just an excuse for you to play through a series of more and more difficult encounters until you reach the final extra challenging encounter and win, very little plot, lots of world building. The flavour text, graphics and music keep a very consistent cyberpunk, anti-corperate tone. So that's a plus if you're into that kind of thing. But what makes this game great is the way it constantly pushes you to the limits of your capabilities. Every level kept me on the edge of my seat. You know how sometimes in games you challenge yourself to be extra conservative. You make sure every bullet counts, you get all the stealth takedowns you can, you hoard items because you don't HAVE to use them now and you might need them later. Then at the end you realize it doesn't matter and you feel like a chump for wasting your own time exploiting mechanics the devs didn't intend and foregoing all the other, more fun mechanics they made. In the end it didn't matter. In this game, everything matters. You can always do something better and the game will always reward it. It's resource management, xcom team coordination, stealth, min/maxing, planning, and so so many judgement calls. All of it is interconnected and all entirely necessary. The mechanics are consistent. The combinations of builds are endless and nuanced in their synergies. The game itself can be endless. The endless mode, expecially with the contingency plan DLC, is solid and lets you do crazy stuff with your builds, pushing them as far as they can possibly go until everything collapses. It's nothing fancy, just solid design.

Nope. I played this whole game through. It's unique and it zeroes in on that prison break fantasy with pinpoint accuracy. Despite all this the game left me with a sour taste in my mouth. The fantasy of the prison break really requires deep, consistent, and well communicated mechanics. The player is constantly observing and planning. You only get one shot at an escape attempt. If anything goes wrong you need some sort of backup plan for getting back into your cell and cleaning up the evidence or all your progress is erased. Something always goes wrong. Sometimes it's something you didn't think of and you learn a lesson, but most often it's trial and error with inconsistent mechanics. As much as it pains me to say it. This game will only leave you disappointed.

I have spent hundreds of hours on this game. There was something compelling there. I thought it would be a good battle simulator, but beyond the random chance moment-to-moment gameplay, there's nothing but thin rock, paper, scissors tactical engagement spread across hours of gating mechanics that do nothing but waste your time. There is some roleplay potential, but just about any game will do just as well there.

Why not?