Recent reviews by Archi

Early access review.

REMEDIUM: Sentinels follows up on a pattern known best from Vampire Survivors, and I must agree that it has a lot of potential for future development.

I like the setting and atmosphere, the graphics are not some kind of masterpiece but they're nice to look at and first and foremost readable while playing.

I found at least one game-breaking bug, but I'm quite sure that it'll be patched by the devs soon enough. After all, this is early access review done at day 1.

The content is limited, as to be expected, but even in the state the game is right now, it warrants at least a solid few hours of enjoyment. The pricing seems very generous in my opinion in regards to the content we're receiving, especially considering the game's state. I plan to come back to the game once it's patched, and I'm glad I had a chance to find about it thanks to ASF curator, since personally I've enjoyed it.

My personal wishlist for the devs: Steam cloud support for save games (unlocks and progress).

Overall, I can recommend the game if you're in for some early access and participation in the development. Even if it was abandoned, there is some solid content for the price already, although the game needs far more polishing before the release, and I wouldn't be as generous with my review if that was a fully finished product. There is a solid foundation here and I'd love to see some actual development and love put into it.

Good job!

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Bannerlord for a very long time was a living meme, since the game was in the development for eternity with no clear release date at sight - to the point there were even rumors if the game exists at all.

I've managed to get it very early right after the game was available in the early access, and while amount of bugs, crashes and issues was higher than any other game I've ever tried, to the point it felt more like early alpha, the core of the satisfying gameplay and the reason why it's named Mount & Blade, was still there. Back then I said that it'll be a masterpiece if TaleWorlds manages to resolve all of those issues and polish those round edges with enough of effort. And they truly did.

Today, I can say that Bannerlord is the sequel to the Warband that every fan was waiting for. It feels like TaleWorlds was listening to the players, as the game includes all the things that worked, creating a marvelous RPG game with very deep world to the point one can really dive and lose himself in the simulation.

Like previous games, Bannerlord also follows "make your own adventure" scheme, where you have a lot of freedom in terms of what exactly you want to do. While the core of the game remains very advanced battle system, it doesn't feel like other options, such as being humble merchant, small mercenary or a ruler of the kingdom, were left out.

I've put almost 300 hours in total in this game, and I could play it for even longer. It really doesn't get boring, hours pass like minutes, and long after midnight you realize that it's monday tomorrow and you're not getting enough of sleep - AGAIN.

For every Mount & Blade fan, this is a mandatory position, TaleWorlds delivered on the promise and we've got a sequel that we've always wanted. For people that didn't play Mount & Blade series yet, this is a very good position to start, as long as you're into deep RPG games with no single plot to follow, but rather making your own, with a lot of possibilities and diversity in the process.

While not the best game of all time, it's in the strict top for me, and I can heavily recommend it for everybody that has even the slightest interest in becoming a lord with his own army during medieval times. Sure, there are things that could be executed slightly better, but no game is perfect, and the fact that the game managed to resolve my very mixed impression during early access proves that it's worthy to consider, especially for people that will play it for the first time.

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Cute, glorious time management game set in Touhou universe.

Touhou Mystia's Izakaya reminds me a lot of Diner Dash. At the same time game is far more RPG-oriented with actual story, lot of dialogues, inside jokes and references that only true fans will catch. The core gameplay, while pretty repetitive, was satisfying enough for me to finish all side and main content of the game within 60 hours or so, but I didn't rush with it, it can be completed in less.

If you enjoy some good amount of time-management gameplay with lovely characters in a game set in Gensokyo that actually has a very decent idea for itself - you can't get wrong with this one, especially at that price. The current pricing is absolute steal, the game has FAR more content than $6 it's priced at. There is a reason why my review adds to the overwhelmingly positive reception of this game, it truly is very satisfying to play, and I'm happy that I gave it a chance.

Oh right, I'd almost forget, the soundtrack is heavily inspired by appropriate Touhou themes from original games, so you can hear familiar to you tunes in completely new arrangements, where they're unique yet similar. I liked how you can pick your favourite tunes to play while running your restaurant.

Seriously, the game is great. It'll make you happy if you're either Touhou fan or time-management games fan, and if you're in for both then you absolutely can't go wrong with this title. I can heavily recommend it, even if it didn't have something that would hold me for longer or keep my mind occupied after finishing it. It's a solid, above-average experience, that's for sure.

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Slay the Spire is unique, enjoyable and very addicting deck-building roguelike, which, as usual, is easy to learn, hard to master.

I don't even know where to start, I've put over a hundred of hours into this title at the time of writing the review, and I still don't have enough, coming back to it every once in a while for my dose of challenge. The game includes 4 different characters, and each one of them plays differently, with at least a few viable strategies for each. While the core of the game stays the same, no run is like the other, and you can never know if the next elite encounter on your way to slay the spire won't be your last.

The game is marvelous, literally everything clicks into a beautiful experience with "one more run" attitude, where hours pass like minutes and you realize it's 7:00 AM once it gets bright outside. It's good, really damn good, probably the best deck-building game I've played to date, surpassing even Hand of Fate 1/2, which I also hold in very high regard.

I don't know what else to write, try it once, and don't blame me for ruining your social life. I don't regret a single hour spent with this title, and I'm yet to consider it fully finished for myself, as higher ascension runs are really difficult even if you perfectly know all the game mechanics. Archi's seal of approval in regards to being one of the best games of all time.

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It's a decent simulator game, but constant amount of performance issues, notorious crashes and other bugs make this a very shallow experience.

Don't get me wrong, the game is fun and I had enjoyable time with it mostly, but the crazy amount of bugs killed it all for me. I'm serious, this game is more bugged than Bethesda games on release day, and the game is almost 1 year old! Employees running into walls, game crashing when you attempt to sweep the dirt, performance tanking to 3 FPS due to physics issues, random audio glitches, everything. If I didn't get it from Humble Bundle for dirt cheap, I'd be very unhappy, but since I did that, it's only annoying because the game has very enjoyable core mechanics and the idea for itself, if only it was more polished first and foremost with bugs being fixed and maybe some small QoL touches around the edges, it'd be example of a simulator game done right.

But no, I'm giving it a negative note, it crashed over a dozen of times during my 8h playthrough, it's not funny having to reload losing over 10 minutes of (very intensive) progress, I can still recommend it due to gameplay, but not due to overall experience, as that is next to unplayable.

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Very satisfying arcade OutRun-like racing game.

The game, while quite simple at its core, features a lot of content. I really liked main campaign which has like 120 different races (if not more), all on unique tracks with quite enjoyable country-specific scenery. The most important aspect however is naturally the gameplay itself - and this one is top notch. The game is simply very satisfying to play, I've put over 40 hours into this title and had a lot of fun for whole this time. Plays very nice on Steam Deck too!

I can recommend it to everybody who enjoys arcade-style racing games. Even though I'm not a huge fan of racing games myself, this one was really fun to play and I had enough of motivation to pursue majority (if not all) of optional content the game offers.

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I'm giving the game a hard-earned positive vote, but I wouldn't claim it perfect.

Suzerain is really deep as far as political game can go, I could even go as far as to say that this is the best politically-oriented game I've ever played, where almost every decision matters in some way, which indeed holds true for the "choices matter" tag. I was happy to explore it and think twice of any decision I make, but despite of that the game is having far more negativity than positivity, where you're put in constant struggle and barely anything ends anywhere near good for you.

It's definitely a good game and I praise it for complexity in what is mostly a disguised visual novel, but at the same time the ending left me with a bad feeling that everything was orchestrated against me and I had no way to win or even overcome this, unless I knew the whole game right from the beginning and ensured no mistake done. It's harsh, because despite good intentions I was punished for what looked like an excuse to end my overall very positive for whole population run.

I still recommend the game for its story and deep simulation, but I can't say that I had the best time with it. It's a mixed bag of praises and developers decisions to make everything possible to throw against me, which left me confused as to how I'd rate my experience. It's definitely not a game for everyone, especially if you expect a satisfying outcome - the vast majority of the endings are negative, and you're almost doomed to end with one if you're willing to make your own best judgment decisions. If you asked me, the game is too harsh in my opinion, and the player can do nothing but comply with that, as no-reloads mechanism and the smallest mistakes right at the start of the game may already erase importance of everything else that you'll decide about in the remaining part of the game - as your fate was already concluded.

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Nebuchadnezzar is a glorious strategy game, heavily inspired by Pharaoh, Caesar and likewise old city builder games. And I must say, I was skeptical at first, as I've already seen failed attempts at bringing those games back to their full glory, I was very surprised to see Nebuchadnezzar truly becoming spiritual successor of those.

Now, there are some things that may affect your opinion about this title, depending on how much you compare it to its over 20 years old competitors. As of patch 1.3, there are for example no military aspects in the game, which I don't consider as some crucial aspect affecting my review, but it's a valid concern that you may find more content in original games. Personally I don't attempt to compare it as a clone, but standalone game, and as a standalone game inspired by Pharaoh and alike, the game is truly a very satisfying experience and I'm glad that I managed to grab it in Humble Bundle, which was a steal.

In comparison with Pharaoh or Ceasar, Nebuchadnezzar is much simpler game. For example, you no longer have to worry much about distance from houses to work places, as your citizens apparently can teleport at work right away. House-planning aspect was also simplified, as you no longer need to min-max roads and exact placement just to ensure that your bazaar workers manage to give food to everybody. At the same time you still have to take into account the usual mess, whether that will be production buildings, storage, transportation, delivery and everything in-between. However, since everything is vastly toned down, the game should also be a satisfying experience for more casual players, rather than being constantly pressured about supply chains.

I really liked the campaign, which very similar to Pharaoh, guides us through history of ancient Mesopotamia. There are like 13 missions total, which took me more or less 45 hours total taking into account some slacking off, and that's plenty. Every following mission features some new mechanic, production chain, or additional logic which needs to be implemented in order to finish it. It was pretty satisfying to finish whole of it.

What else I can say, if you liked Pharaoh, Ceasar, or similar games, Nebuchadnezzar will definitely be along your alley. If you expect from it die-hard experience, you might get disappointed, but even that is configurable with selection of difficulty, so I'd say you should be good to go. For people that somehow skipped those marvelous city builders released more than 20 years ago, I'd still recommend this title if you enjoy city builders in general, and you're covered in case you'd still want more afterwards.

I can heavily recommend this title. Maybe it's not a masterpiece that keeps me awake at night, but it's a very solid production that I had a lot of fun with, as can be seen with the amount of hours clocked. As a mid-to-hardcore strategy fan, I'm satisfied.

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80's OVERDRIVE is attempting to be Outrun clone, and I must say that I'm positively surprised how well it does that. It's a very simple racing game with barely any car physics or complexity, but for me this is an advantage, as I was looking for some racing game to chill out with in retro style, and I must say that this is a very nice position to do exactly that. There is a quite lengthy (for such a game) campaign, which took me around 5 hours to finish. I can recommend it if you don't expect too much of it and want to get some Outrun vibes from the past. I've enjoyed it enough to leave a recommendation, but as I said already, it's very simple at its core.

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A very enjoyable gambling game for an hour or two. Despite being in early access, it has enough of content already which is why I considered giving it a try, even if usually I avoid EA before final release.

I've enjoyed how well RNG mixes up with strategy and deck-building. After every spin you pick a symbol that will be added to the spinning pool, which means luck is as important here as the strategy itself, as neither will win alone.

The price is in my opinion a bit on the higher side in regards to replayability. $6.50 for something that could be classified as a simple mobile game is a bit too much. The game is very fun and charming, but $5 would be more appropriate. Still, this is just my note on a side, as the game definitely deserves my thumbs up as interesting thing to try out for at least several runs.

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