Recent reviews by the_rabidsquirel

This is what a sequel should be. As a longtime fan of Crash and the original trilogy, this was an absolute blast. I only have two critiques, which weren't huge issues for me, I'll cover them at the end.

There are more base levels than the other games, and they're generally harder too. Rarely did something feel unfairly hard, everything was definitely achievable with practice. I seemed to have had an easier time adjusting though. My death counter only went as high as the 30s or 40s for the few really hard segments, and otherwise didn't often go into the 20s, whereas I've seen others report hundreds of deaths. The introduction of the quantum masks is a great addition to the existing Crash formula, and I found the sections where you have to get creative with their use to be very enjoyable. The boss fights are also more engaging than the generally easy bosses of the first three games. All this together, the base levels were fantastic.

The real difficulty comes in with the perfect relics and the time trial relics, required for 106%, but not necessary for 100%. Perfect relics require breaking all the boxes and not dying in one go, like in the first game, except these levels are generally longer and harder. Time trial relics are the same as other games, getting through as quickly as possible without dying. Two techniques are introduced for speed boosts, slide spinning and triple spinning, and mastering both was also very fun. There's also the dev time trial relics for those who enjoy pain, but thankfully they weren't required even for 106%. It's the one thing I didn't feel like doing seeing how insane the times are. Nice to see it there for those who want it.

The environment and artistic design is a delight. The sound and music are wonderful, especially with how some levels incorporated changing music as you progressed. The story is just some simple fun, which in my opinion is enough for a Crash game, I'm not playing it for the story after all. Getting to play as other characters was fun too, though I found the Crash/Coco gameplay the most enjoyable.

MY CRITIQUES:

The first is the inverted levels. By themselves a neat concept, especially some of the inverted themes, but the problem is its requirement for 100%. All inverted levels do is mirror everything, add a filter and maybe gameplay effect, and change the location of the hidden gem. All of the enemies, boxes, and obstacles are identical. The result is it just felt like playing the same level twice for completion, which was tedious. I fell into the pattern of doing the inverted levels right after the originals, while things were still fresh in my mind, and it cut down on the tedium I felt. Would've preferred if it was just something you could toggle, instead of being required for 100%.

Some of the boxes and hidden gems were *really* hidden, annoyingly so. You often have to rub yourself against all the walls because they're hidden mostly (sometimes even completely) behind scenery. Sometimes you have to throw yourself at something that would normally kill you. Sometimes it's just way out of sight so that you can either barely see or can't see it at all even with panning the camera. Maybe there's a glimpse of it, but the inverted filter makes it way harder to see. The pattern I fell into was for my first run of a level I took it slow, checked everywhere, made use of camera panning, and if by the end I was missing some boxes or the gem I just looked up a video for their location. This made it fun to find the stuff that did feel cleverly hidden, while avoiding the frustration of looking endlessly for the more obscure items.

The game would be a 10/10 to me if it weren't for the two elements I took issue with. They knock it down to a 9/10 in my opinion, still a very enjoyable game that I had tonnes of fun going for 106%. My playtime as of this review is how long 106% took me.

I was in the Alpha, and the game has come a long way so far and seen many improvements. I have complete confidence in Stairway Games and everything they've promised to come. The only other game I've played in the farm sim genre is Stardew Valley, and I'm loving this like I do Stardew. It's similar in a good way, yet different enough to not feel like exactly the same thing. There is still a lot to come, so if you're not sure on it now, wait for some updates.

Diving and mining for resources are both fun, and in addition to fishing there's bug catching too. The skill system and being able to choose the order in which you want perks is nice, and I also love that machines you build for your farm can process multiple things at a time, so you won't have to build near as many. There's lots of different ways to make money, giving you many choices for how you want to spend each day. The game has a cute art style and a wonderful cast of characters, and a delightful soundtrack.

One of my favourite games without question. "Uncompromising wilderness survival" is very apt. The game readily hands out punishment for mistakes, and it's what makes overcoming each milestone and challenge feel so satisfying. It's generally balanced around playing with multiple people, and it is tonnes of fun with friends, but it's perfectly doable solo as well. The big bosses usually just require a lot more planning and knowledge if attempting solo. 18 characters (as of this review), all with their own unique advantages and disadvantages, and a fully customisable world generation allow for a wide variety of gameplay based on your preferences.

Since its release in 2016 the game has received constant updates, and it doesn't look like it's stopping anytime soon. Klei is very dedicated to the game and their community, and this game sure has a community. There are countless mods out there if that's your thing. The art style is fantastic and contributes to the gameplay so well, and the music is great too.

First you're just trying to not die period, then comes managing the difficulties of each season. Once you can finally manage a full year things have only just started, as from there you can look to the myriad of bosses that are out there. Some of the hardest bosses are blocked by other tasks and bosses you have to conquer first. Once you've beaten them all you can try to further challenge yourself with boss rushes, let out your style with mega-basing, or just wait for the next updates.

As someone that grew up with the originals and has replayed them a bunch over the years, the remake is phenomenal. It's very faithful to the originals, and I almost never found my muscle memory of the games causing issues, it really felt the same. Even little details like being able to run along the ropes of the bridge levels in Crash 1 weren't forgotten about.

I said "almost never" as there is the issue of Crash's hitbox. Basically (and from what I understand) in the originals (or at least 1 and 2) he had a rectangular hitbox, and in this he has a rounded one. The result is being able to slip off edges where in the originals you could stand on them with a pixel of your hitbox. Some people report serious issues with this, but I seem to be in the minority in that honestly, the only time I ever really noticed it was in the Cortex and Brio bonus rounds in Crash 1. I didn't mind though because the remake lets you retry them over and over if you die in them. In the original if you died you had to exit and then replay the level and collect all the tokens again to get one more shot, which was incredibly tedious.

The games are somewhat difficult platformers with a good mix of environments so that things never get too stale. As a little extra challenge there are gems to collect for getting through a level while getting all the boxes and/or discovering secret routes. To go even further there's relics, the game's time trial mode, which was originally only in Crash 3 and they made the awesome decision to include in all three games. Getting gold or platinum on every level gets you full game completion and really tests your mechanics, with platinum being extra bragging rights as it's seriously hard on some levels.

Speaking of things they added, the cut Crash 1 level Stormy Ascent and the new Crash 3 level Future Tense are both solid additions, and definitely the hardest levels of their respective games. In my opinion Crash 3 gets way too easy with all the ability unlocks, but even with them Future Tense manages to maintain some challenge. Other things were changed for the better too, like Crash 1's archaic "save" system being replaced with a normal system where you can save at any point outside a level, or the addition of being able to choose to play Crash or Coco in most levels.

Graphics are of course seriously upgraded, and the art style fits the playful nature of the games well. The games also have awesome soundtracks, and at least in my playthrough I never noticed any bugs.

My playtime as of this review was how long it took me to 100% all three games, including their bonus % and getting a mix of gold and platinum relics, and all the Steam achievements. That's also as someone that knows these games very well though, so for a newcomer you can probably expect to get a little more playtime out of them.

As someone that grew up with the originals and has replayed them a bunch over the years, the remake is phenomenal. It's very faithful to the originals, and I never found my muscle memory of the games causing issues, it really felt the same.

The games are casual platformers and collectathons enjoyable by any experience level of player. It's a joy exploring all the different environments and seeing the range of characters and enemies in them. Spyro 2 and 3 add assorted minigames, and Spyro 3 adds new characters to play in their own levels and minigames. Lacking those Spyro 1 is instead heavier on level secrets, and for that reason it's my favourite of the three.

Graphics are of course seriously upgraded, and the art style they went with fits the games so well and is adorably perfect. The games also have awesome soundtracks with each level getting its own track. You have the option to toggle at any time between "Reignited" or "Original" music. I left it on Reignited as I played through to hear it all, and while they're good tracks in their own right that take inspiration from the originals, the original tracks have too much nostalgia for me, and I'm glad the toggle is there.

My playtime as of this review was how long it took me to 100% all three games (including their bonus %) and the Steam achievements, but that's also as someone that knows these games very well, so for a newcomer you can probably expect to get a little more playtime out of them.

The only bug I encountered was in Spyro 3 where a gem that was supposed to drop from an enemy got lost in the void instead in two different levels. Sparx pointed into the ground where the enemy was. Reloading the level and killing the enemy again fixed it both times, and didn't take much time to do.

This game is simply a masterpiece, and I say that as someone that's never played a Harvest Moon game or any others like it before.

You can play it however you want, whether that's min-maxing to the extreme or casually enjoying each day, and everything in-between. There are some things where you're bound by time, like most crops dying at the end of their season, but there's always another year. There are some goals you can work to at your own pace, or you can spend your days chilling, fishing, and building relationships with the townspeople.

The gameplay is addicting, and it's hard to stop saying "just one more day". I find it satisfying to plan my days out and build my farm up, from the overgrown field at the start to managing a wine empire in the late game. I particularly enjoy the mining and combat as well, they're simple but fun, and late game you do open up some relatively challenging areas that are fun to conquer. The fishing can be fun too, which from me is saying a lot since I *despise* fishing in every other game.

On top of all that the game has an amazing soundtrack and adorable art style. There's a huge modding community too, though I've never really touched it (yet at least) since I still find vanilla so fun even after all these hours. Multiplayer is also insanely fun, and again you can play it at your pace, whether it's chilling cooperatively or competing to see who can make the most money. The vanilla game supports 1-4 players, but it's very easy to mod the limit away so that you can have as many players as you can fit cabins on your farm.

The game has received free updates over the years and they've always been excellent additions. It's possible there might be another major update in the future, but ConcernedApe has said he doesn't want to make any promises, it may happen, it may not. Speaking of, what really makes all of this amazing is that ConcernedApe is one guy for which this game has been a passion project, and it shows. I've bought the game twice, on Steam and Android, and I don't regret it at all, CA has earned the money in my opinion.

Don't let the Early Access turn you away, this game is more polished than a very large number of fully released titles. The developers put in an insane amount of love and attention. It's very well optimized especially given how much can be going on at once, and the devs continue to try to optimize more. They listen to and communicate with the community a tonne and have gone out of their way to make it easier for modders to do their thing. There's easily hundreds of hours of playtime, and that's before you even dip into the mods, some of which up the complexity an order of magnitude.

One of the nicknames for this game is Cracktorio for good reason. If it's not your kind of game you really won't like it, but if you like it you will love it and become addicted. If you like logistics, planning, engineering, problem solving, that kind of thing, then this is the game for you. First you'll just fix your iron bottleneck, then expand circuit production, then oh just let me set up a new oil outpost, and then before you know it it's 6 hours later.

This is simply an amazing game. It's a fast-paced action RPG with very enjoyable gameplay. It even offers a wide range of difficulty from a story mode where you can't lose, to a debuffed player character agaist massively buffed enemies, and everything in between. You can use two different weapons and a special ability at once, and switch them out in any combination you wish in between levels and sometimes during too. As your character levels up you get to apply spirits from the distillery to him, each offering a unique buff, and you can swap these out in any combination you wish as well. The story is incredible, as is the live narration given by one of the NPCs in the game. On top of all that, both the art style and the soundtrack are completely awesome. The only downside I'd say this game has is that it's a short playthrough, but even then it's got good replay value with all the different weapon, spirit, and difficulty combinations, not to mention it's got New Game Plus and a highscore mode.

Not only is this the best experience I've ever had with an indie game, but it's one of the best games I've ever played period. It is well worth the price, and due to its excellence in nearly every aspect of design and its wide difficulty range I would recommend this to any gamer.

Great team gameplay, lots of maps and modes, 9 classes with a ridiculous variety in customization possibilities, free to play (with limitations) and free updates, a wonderful community, a hilarious style of humor, and a retro style of animation that makes it all work so well. All around the best first person shooter and one of the best games I've ever played.

I've sunk more money and time into this game than I have any other, and I can't imagine I'll beat that with any other game. I've got so many memories of this game that even if I stop playing it one day, I know it will always hold a special place in my heart, as corny as that sounds.



Coming back to this review after the Jungle Inferno update, and while I'm still disappointed with the state of the in-game competitive matchmaking, overall my sentiment towards the game is unchanged. This game will always mean something special to me, and the few devs that are still working on it definitely do care about it and want nothing but the best.