Recent reviews by Merlin

I want this game removed from Steam and my library.

"You need to have used this product for at least 5 minutes before posting a review for it (1 minutes on record)."

Look at my time spent in this "game". In reality, it is 25 seconds and I finished it.

This is nothing else than a scam and I refuse to even waste my time writing a large review about this. Do not buy. Report.

This is one of the games which do not even deserve an in debth analysis. It offers nothing. Despite the ton ton of positive reviews, trust me, avoid.

Overall: 0.75 / 10

NotGTAV is one of those titles that you would be drawn to just because of the title, expecting the game to be funny. However, nearly instantly upon starting the game you realize it has nothing to offer. Humour is so poorly executed to the point where I wonder if other raters were payed off to kick this game up to "Very positive". Only positive thing about it is that it claims that all of the profits are going to charity, which honestly I feel it should be no other way at all.
However, just choose a charity and donate money directly.
Skip this title.

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Graphics: 2 / 10
Poor, choppy graphics. Art at the level of elementary grader.

Sounds: 1 / 10
Often confusing and poorly optimised sound containing not really original or funny jokes. often just random noises and gibberish.

Controls: 0 / 10
Game does not utilize mouse controls at all, suggesting really poor, begginer level programming. Controls themself consist of pressing movement keys to move the snake in a tile-per-tile pattern.

Gameplay: 0 / 10
Game itself is only about 20 minutes long and at the same time very repeatative. Nothing than the few icons changes (you are either a car, or a cart).

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P.S. for developers.
+ From the game and appearance of the same on steam I understand that the developers realize most of these things already. A project game that used the GTAV hype to get on steam but in reality has not much to offer takes all the profits to charity. That is a nice gesture that I do support.
All developers (including myself), have started low, with similar projects that try to make the learning curve more fun for themself and I support this. You gathered experience in programming, art style, working with steam and with people. However, when it comes to my rating of the game, please also have in mind that these are intended as a quality check for a market. Only objective thoughts on the game.
Best wishes for the future!

Very cute, thank you for making me smile Endless Loop Studios! ^_^

Overall rating: 8 / 10

Zotrix is a space shooter coming from an experienced Indie game development team - ZeroBit Games. Zotrix is also their first game published on steam platform.
Whilst, as any early access game there is a lot of room for improvement the game runs rather smooth and promises quite a lot. I've had the privilege of discussing the game with its developers and the impression gained is quite positive. Aside the fact of ZeroBit's constant feedback collection and the friendly nature of its developers there is also no lack of ideas and possible twists the game could take.

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Graphics: 8 / 10
The game runs smoothly, which is really important for the type of games that is Zotrix. It is pleasing to the eye and with the adjustable amount of particles you may choose whatever you are most comfortable with.

Sounds: 7.5 / 10
Suitable music throughout the stages. I feel as if the music volume is a bit too low and SFX a bit too high by default, but you can adjust them to how you feel works the best and from there to enjoy the experience that it builds up.

Gameplay: 8.5 / 10
At the current stage, players can select from an alright variety of upgrades for the ship which are not permanent. Every upgrade bought can be lost with the destruction of your ship and will have to be re-purchased. The story itself is currently not too big, but I can positively say that the possibilities of further development are endless and the game might become much bigger than it currently is depending from the path developers continue guiding the game to.
There is currently a very interesting mechanic in the game that allows you to go "in the background" by pressing space and thus avoid enemy bullets easily. Whilst I try to play without using this function, it is very good in case you cannot beat a level and in that way it provides an easy way out of a sticky situation in case you decide you need it. There are also small instructions currently implemented in the game that you may access by pressing f1 during the mission.

Fun factor: 8 / 10

Recommended!

Overall: 7.6 / 10

Voyage: Journey to the Moon is a title that deserved more popularity than it had gotten in my opinion. This is probably one of the reasons the game never received its sequel which is in my opinion a big shame, even although at the end of the game you are given a small teaser for it.

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Graphics: 7.5 / 10
- The game does look very beautiful from time to time, whilst other times it looks alright. There we're quite a decent amount of details put into certain parts of both the map and items. It is obvious the game was polished quite a lot considering its current state and the fact it first came out in 2005.

Story: 7.5 / 10
- Scary, fun and intriguing for the most part. Worst part of it was at the very start of the game where there were a few small loopholes as well as the fact that at one point you get into a "react or die" situation without any instructions, which is not that bad really, as the game allows you to lose a life in many different scenarios (including falling into an empty elevator shaft because you forgot to call the elevator first) but without any penalty. After death, you are not brought back to the menu or loaded in from the last save, but rather just a moment before fatal decision was made. However, game gets a lot better once you land on the moon.
On the way you learn about plant and alien life, as well as social organisation of the aliens, their language, writing and technology and their relations with the human kind. You may also reach earth by not doing everything there is to do, and thus skipping something or doing it a different way. I personaly found the story to be quite short, peaking up to 6.8 hours on record from start to completion with all the time taken to solve the puzzles on the way but overall, I loved it.

Puzzles: 8 / 10
- I found puzzles not to be too hard, although they do have a small difficulty curve as you progress, meaning they get harder and harder. This is good because I believe the game would be enjoyable to both a casual gamer and those in for a quick challenge. It is obvious the puzzles are made by a human rather than an inhabitant of the moon and should demand an avarage logic skill to beat. They blend into the story perfectly as no puzzle is there just for the sake of its existence but rather, everything has a meaning. They are not repetative either, so you should not feel bored during the game.

Sound: 7 / 10
- The strong point of the sound is definitely its soundtrack. Main menu music has a really pleasant and suitable vibe for the type of the game. Voice acting is fine and so are other general sounds, although they are nothing to point your finger at.

Fun factor: 8 / 10


Recommended!

Overall: 4.9 / 10

The biggest problem of the game is it is horribly unpolished. It is obvious the game was made with the intention of having to swipe fingers across the screen rather than use a keyboard. There is only one save slot for every party you make, so if you manage to pull levers in the wrong order in a puzzle and get yourself stuck, you're done. That's what happened to me about 80% into the game and after that I felt there is no point to start a new game. However, aside it being slightly broken, this game did manage to take 7 hours of my life, that I have kind of enjoyed.

In the case of this game, a line between recommended and not is very thin, but I decided that the unforgiveness of the game to do the puzzles in a different way than it has imagined it being done is unforgiving. That tipped me over to say No, skip this title. However, if you are REALLY into these types of games, you might still want to get it.

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• Graphics: 7 / 10
  Pleasing to the eye, exciting. Few quite really nice touches to the levels.
  
  
• Sounds: 6 / 10
  Neat menu music, decent ingame sound effects for the most part. I felt as if the reading speed at the start was too slow.
  
  
• Story: 6.5 / 10
  Quite basic in fact, but enjoying regardless. Slow progressing.
  
  
• HUD and controls: 4 / 10
  HUD itself feels slightly crowded. What you see in the screenshots of the game is the HUD if you play with non-traditional settings. This mean that game will try to act as it is still kind of being played on your touchscreen device in a way that it will allow you to turn around by clicking and dragging your mouse instead of swiping your fingers.
  This however can get annoying as you have to click on the items, walls or objects to interact and may sometimes turn instead of doing that.
  Upon switching to traditional settings, your character will not turn around randomly because of your mouse, but your hud will receive about 8 new buttons on it that give you an option to use them instead to turn. This is totally obsolete in a PC game where you use a keyboard to navigate. The game will also not bother teaching you some of the controls required for moving on with the game (Tab, you're welcome).
  
  
• Fun factor: 6 / 10
  
  
• Possibility to get stuck at random times: -1 off the overall rating

Overall rating: 8.4 / 10

It is not good when you are at loss of words while trying to write a useful review. I have started up this game expecting a decent story that normally comes with this genre, but I have not hoped to get what I did. Developing a decent game is hard as there are many aspects to consider and implement them in a good way but is totally different to create a masterpiece.
I would go as far to pin a tag "Educational" on this game as it will lead you through an endless really hard and realistic decisions a person may have to make during their lives. The game uses very interesting and perhaps cheeky ways of turning the character you control into yourself, a really hard achievment that makes me both love and in a weird way - hate this game. Before I realized what is going on, it was telling a story about myself.

People speak of how good or bad games are and it is really rare when you just wish to say: "Thank you" like i do now. Thank you.

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Pixel art: 8.5 / 10

Mostly very pleasant, detailed looking game. Every room is made beautifully and aside one counter you can walk over, everything works perfect.

Story: 10 / 10

While it may seem the story is slow progressing at the start, soon you come to realize it just perfect and that any word you say or any action you do or do not do may lead you into another totally different way. The game branches quite nicely and in reality speaks about you. It will throw at you the hardest possible choices and just perhaps help you find your place in the world, both in game and in real life. There are no crazy things in this game, no dragons or unicorns. Consider it a life simulator. A great one in my opinion.

Soundtrack: 7.5 / 10

Not memorable, not annoying. However, it sets the mood perfectly and follows you through the game quietly, allowing you to focus on everything else. I think it fits the game well.

Controls: 8 / 10

Like any RPG pixel game, controls are not too difficult or confusing. I have found it interesting though as you have to pause the game to access your inventory. Walking speed of the character seemed too slow at parts, but nothing of this ruins the game, especially if you have some patience and like exploring.

Fun factor: 8 / 10


Full recommendation!

A decent, fun game with a good amount of historical facts.

My game rating: 74.5 / 100

Graphics: 65 / 100
Whilst character graphics are done fairly well, I feel as if the ground was not given enough details. Graphics could definitely be better, but they still fit in quite well and do not ruin your experience.

Story: 78 / 100
It is true that the story feels slightly unchanging. For most parts of the game you are infiltrating castles or camps, but the story itself does keep you interested and hungry for more. Furthermore, aside of the storyline of the game, it offers you the story of the knight Templars in small portions that you get by discovering stone tablets. I have enjoyed this addition very much as it brings the age of Templars alive and closer to you.

Combat mechanics: 76 / 100
As everything else in the game, combat is developed to that point where you just begin to like it. Trick with the combat module in this game is that there are 3 characters that you may chose to control at any time during the game, and all 3 of them have different skill trees that come with different attacks. As you progress through the game, you may chose to upgrade your attack moves and unlock new ones. Game also offers huge difficulty spikes between the difficulty modes which is great in my opinion. This allows you to chose whether you would like to go through the game without much stress or perhaps chose a more realistic mode. Sometimes you also get awarded with a kill cam. I enjoyed it.

Fun factor: 79 / 100

Is the game worth its price (14eur)? I am not sure, it depends what you are looking for. If you do buy it, do not forget to check out the Arena.
Recommendation!