Recent reviews by Speckle

THIS IS A REVIEW IN PROGRESS- AS OF WRITING, I AM ONLY ABOUT HALF FINISHED.

I understand the mixed reviews- I've been following this game for about 6 years since finishing 2064 and seeing its original teasers. With all that time, it is fairly short and hollow in comparison. Narrative choices don't seem as important, recurring characters feel more like fan-service and (based on other reviews) the story seems like it won't conclude in an incredibly satisfying way. There's also quite a few noticeable typos even very early in the game, but this is something that can be fixed easily.

With all that said- I still love it. The art is an incredible step up from the first game, even though I loved the original's more simplistic style. I loved 2mello's OST for 2064, and I was skeptical about a new composer at first, but I think Coda's new OST stands up. There aren't as many memorable characters, but I think ES88 and Gate at least definitely stand up. Overall, this feels like a much more episodic thing- a 2064 side story more than a sequel. It doesn't capture the vibes of the original, and yet it hits a much more "saturday morning cartoon" vibe that's just as enjoyable.

I'll try to compile my thoughts better once I'm done with the game, as well as anything else that stands out by then, but for now I think this game deserves a positive review. I can understand why it's disappointing to some, but I still find myself loving the excuse to get back into the Read Only Memories world.

Great all-in-one emulator once you take some time to figure it out- I would kill for a prettier library layout like the EmulationStation/RetroPi version of this software, though.

So, this is a great FPS game and is getting a positive review for that- but most other reviews have it wrong.
This game does NOT play like Ultrakill. Personally, it reminded me of a faster Sprawl with overall more polish and content. This game isn't super well known, so for the sake of the review I'll say it plays more like a mix between Duke Nukem and Titanfall 2. Doom Eternal is a pretty close comparison, too.

It does have a nice arsenal of guns with purchasable alt-fires, but it also has more typical upgrades- objective improvements that you must fill your upgrade slots with, forcing you to make a build. A lot of people will like this aspect, I did not. It made the game's systems, particularly movement and healing, feel extremely limited compared to what they could have been. Also worth noting that you cannot wall-run off any wall, but instead are limited to specific yellow boards- again not horrible, but extremely limiting.

Another thing that took away from this game and made it feel more like other FPS titles than Ultrakill was the ammo count and save system, making the gameplay fall more in line with more typical boomer shooters. Pretty standard systems and I didn't quite dislike them, but they definitely prevented the game from feeling arcade-y like Ultrakill does.

The visuals are absolutely gorgeous. My only complaint here is that it makes for poor enemy visibility. I think the trade-off is well worth it, at least outside of endless modes- it unfortunately has been a reason for me to avoid these endless modes, unlike Ultrakill's Cybergrind. This visual problem also lead to some confusion with the level design, but this was mostly negligible and only arose a couple of times.

The last flaw I found was the sound design, which was unfortunately pretty bad in some areas. The starting shotgun is the worst feeling I have ever encountered in an FPS, and I think the main reason for this is its weak sound design. Some other weapons definitely could've sounded more impactful, too. Ultimately, this just makes it so that some of the arsenal doesn't feel quite right- their shots don't sound proportional to their actual damage.

I'll finish this reviews once I finish the game- I'm about halfway done right now. Regardless, I don't think this will be one I milk for replay value like I have for Ultrakill. It may seem like I've only talked about flaws but the game is great- I just think these are things I haven't seen most other reviews touch on.

TLDR - Fantastic FPS, but you should know what to expect going in. You'll get a great boomer shooter, but an awful Ultrakill / arcade-y shooter. It's one of the better recent boomer shooters on the market, but it's also not perfect as some other reviews seem to claim.

This game is clearly inspired by Tsukihime- it uses the same engine, it emulates the art style, follows some (not too many) plot points / ideas and makes a handful of references.

I wasn't expecting it to reach the same heights, and I'm happy with how close it got at times. It almost feels like they combined concepts from Tsukihime and Witch on the Holy Night, while putting their own spin on it.

Still, I can't quite recommend the game. There is WAY too much filler and incredible pacing issues because of this. Sometimes it's easy to know what you can skip safely as it's put into separate scenarios, but other times it's baked into important scenarios sporadically and it's not safe to skip. I can enjoy some slice of life, but this game is MOSTLY slice of life. If I have one other complaint about the writing, it's that it feels a little too edgy. Don't get me wrong, Tsukihime is EXTREMELY edgy, but it uses it to nail an aesthetic that I feel this one didn't quite land- possibly because of how derivative it felt at times, in this regard. On top of all of these, it's only the first part of a series which, almost a decade after this game's launch, seems like it'll never see any further translations.

This game definitely has its moments and some great things going for it, but it's pretty tough to recommend because of these issues. If you think you can get past what I've mentioned, then it probably is worth a try!

Edit: Now that I've finished the game, I can confirm these sentiments still hold true. It has good moments, but the pacing is an absolute mess that made it hard for me to enjoy.

I used to play the GBA and Xbox 360 ports of this game all the time as a kid, and I played the hell out of Castle Crashers and Battleblock Theater when they came out. These games have been extremely formative for me... I cannot describe the simple joy I get finally playing it on PC.

I was a pretty dumb kid and never realized it was a flash game all along. But hey, now I get to play the HD version again!

This is great pixel art drawing software for those who don't have Aseprite, but two major drawbacks still make it a negative review:
1) No cloud saves without paying for the subscription. This made sense on the mobile app version (which I used to use and enjoy, too!) but not on Steam where this service should be expected- at least between Steam devices.
2) Uploading art through the in-app share feature means it will likely be used to train AI. You can turn this off, but it is on by default and hidden in "additional options" menus. This is by far the greater issue of the two, and an app specifically for artists should really know why this is a problem.

While the gameplay doesn't feel quite as responsive as others in the genre like DJMax Respect V and Musynx, it's still more than good enough in this regard and makes up for it by having an incredible set of tracks and mappings, and by being completely free. Probably the best out of the three in terms of tracks, and it manages to be consistently good... and surprisingly huge.

Compared to these other games, this one also has the most cohesive visual design with great art, UI and sound design. I haven't gotten far enough in the VN story to comment on it much, but I can say that it doesn't seem bad at least... Although it hasn't quite gripped me either.

My only problem with the game currently is that you can't rebind a controller without doing it through Steam's input system, which in turn makes the menus annoying to control. Most people probably won't have this issue since you CAN rebind a keyboard and it's an objectively better way to play, it just never felt comfortable for me to play that way.

All in all, only minor issues in a game that is absolutely fantastic and COMPLETELY FREE. If you like rhythm games at all, give this one a try!

This game is just Quake on steroids, with each of the game's 15 levels being massive ~500 enemy romps. Each has taken me about half an hour to an hour so far, and this game is a hell of a lot longer than I expected it to be.

The save system is kind of annoying, but it can be turned off in favor of typical quicksave and quickloading. There are some issues with load times, as well as brief pauses when quicksaving and freezing while loading a level initially, but it never causes crashes or anything game-ruining.

Overall, I'm shocked to see this game leave early access in such a strong state after what seemed like a long period of development hell.

I wanted to like this game but it ultimately fell flat. All the art and music is really good, but everything else is extremely shallow.
It's not a great simulator because all of those gameplay aspects are pretty light and simple. This didn't bother me much though, I came for a story game.
However, it also fails as that. It leans too hard into shock bait, rather than creating a narrative that weaves these heavy themes in with tact. The game feels like it was written by an edgy highschooler who wanted to write about these heavy themes, but never learned how to do it tastefully. Likewise, all the endings I have gotten so far have felt lackluster and boring. I'm not saying these endings should have been happy or satisfying, I just think they really should have been more fleshed out... and less predictable.
While there are definitely great aspects to this game, these major flaws make it pretty hard to recommend, and I'm a little surprised that there aren't more negative reviews like this.

Edit: The more I play, the more two things happen:
1) The art and effects get even better, it's a super cool game in that regard
2) The handling of this sensitive subject matter only gets worse. This game should be a case study in how NOT to write about depression and self-harm.
I ended up still finishing all endings despite my issues and the final "good" ending utterly fails too. It's exactly where you'd expect the story to go, and far from the plot twist it's played off as.

TLDR: Great art direction, horrible insensitive writing.

they should call the game ultraCOOL because that's what I think it is