Recent reviews by Frosty

This is an extraordinary game, about survival and the brutal nature of the elements. It's about making the best of a bad situation, about losing as gracefully as you can. If you've played 11bit's previous game, this war of mine, you'll understand these concepts well and be prepared for them. The only downside is the linearity to the main campaign which is really just 1 mission you need to play a few times to learn the mechanics to beat it. But there's enough decent and cheap DLC to hopefully keep it alive to make it worth full price.

One of the better Hidden Object Games (HOGs) with a investigation mechanic that gives it a bit of extra depth.

The competitive scene has somewhat ruined this game, but it's a lot more polished since launch. it runs well and looks good, but it's not the sort of thing to play for fun, if you're not into brutal competition then I wouldn't bother.

One of the best contemporary RPGs available. Unfortunately all of the sequels are console trash, do not buy them.

A simple FPS game that has complex gun mechanics that require each individual action to be a key press, which means things like reloading your gun is not all that simple. Only 3 gun types and 2 enemy types, and the maps are randomly generated out of a selection of premade blocks so each play through is a bit different. It's quite short but also quite hard and will put you in some very tense moments. Once you learn through muscle memory how to operate the guns and you can complete the game it's very rewarding. Pick this up when it's cheap.

One of the better Hidden Object Games, it adds a few new unique elements such as playing as multiple characters who help each other, seeing the same scenes from different angles, and a lockpick mini game.

Hell Let Loose is a team-based first person shooter that heavily rewards teamwork and cooperation. It sports 50v50 player gameplay over expansive maps, based on real world locations. It uses dynamic control points and dynamic spawn points, meaning each battle is unique in terms of approach and cover, so you never feel like you're in the same fight twice.

The game uses a blend of realism and quality of life mechanics to make sure you get the best balance. It leans towards realism in gameplay; most guns will put troops down in one hit and all headshots are one-hit kill. Grenades and other explosives are deadly but are limited in number. Suppressing fire is necessary as frontal assaults are rarely effective, so pinning enemy defences with suppressing fire from machine guns and flanking tactics are extremely effective. However, there are quality of life decisions such as troop name badges (on friendly troops only) that prevent team killing, and an absence of a stamina mechanic. While these elements reduce realism slightly, the trade off is well worth it. In almost every other measure the game leans towards the side of realism.

There's has a heavy emphasis on team work, each side is broken down into squads of six, tank crew of three and sniper teams of two. Each squad has a squad leader and a selection of roles to pick from, each with their own unique abilities which contribute to the battle. There's a direct relationship between cooperation, communication and success. The squads who stick together and use mics to communicate enemy locations and enemy tactics are the most effective.

The graphics are really nice and feel authentic to the era and locations. The game performance is roughly middle of the road. You wouldn't want to play this on a low-end machine. The graphics bottom out around the Medium setting, I think in large part to maintain fairness in the amount of foliage and the distance in which it’s drawn. SLI for me doesn't work but it runs OK in 2560x1440. Sadly, it's not quite playable in 4k, you'd need a more powerful graphics card.

The moment-to-moment gameplay is intense and fun, and for advanced players there's a much larger meta game inside each match where the squad leaders and commander coordinate to place resource nodes, then spend those resources on special attacks like bombing runs, strafing runs and supplies.

The game also features tanks which encourage teamwork as they take three men to fully crew and use effectively. They're a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield when used correctly, and they force infantry to work together to place tank traps, AT mines and flank with AT weapons. This also greatly adds to how the maps are dynamic in terms of gameplay, a single tank in the right spot can alter the flow of an attack/defence.

My only criticism so far is the audio, which needs work and is actively being worked on. That being said, it has improved significantly since the free weekend. There are some bugs, however none of them fundamentally hinder gameplay. The title is early access which means it's cheap to purhcase, and I think it's a steal at the current price of £25. All the core game mechanics are in place so far which means it's fleshed out as an experience. There is a roadmap for more weapons/vehicles/maps so I genuinely believe the best time to buy is now.

Extremely good point and click puzzle adventure that takes me back to the original days of Monkey island. Great indie art style, good puzzles, interesting and quirky characters, pretty much everything about this game is brilliant. Highly recommend-a-boo

A very good point and click puzzle adventure game from Artifex Mundi. It has all the charm of the old 2D puzzle adventure games of old like Monkey Island, and makes references throughout the game to many of these older titles. The puzzle and mini games ramp up in difficulty on a good curve to ease you into it, you should never get stuck for too long with a built in hint (optional) hint system. The setting is a good one, it takes a dark time in the soviet unions history and does a good job of extracting some laughs from that. The artwork is cartoony and hand drawn and is crammed full of little details and the audio does the job well enough. It's not a short game but it's also not a long game, however it fits the price point perfectly, buy this title at full price and you wont be disappointed. I genuinely hope Artifex Mundi make more 2D puzzle adventure games like this.

The game is exactly as it looks, you control a hole which starts off small and grows in radius as you consume objects. It's oddly satisfying to play and hoover up all the objects, although it never sat well with me that you're essentially consuming and destroying characters that for the lack of a better word are the good guys. The art and overall style is quite good, the graphics are basic but do the job of conveying the cartoon feel. As you progress they do introduce several new mechanics such as you can fill the hole with water and fire which allows for some rudimentary puzzles which are never very hard to solve and so don't bring much satisfaction. This a cool little indie game but I do have 2 gripes with it, first of all it's brutally short any my completion time was 1.6 hours according to steam which I'm OK with because not all games need to be super long but I feel the cost should reflect that and at over £10 I think it's too expensive, I'd recommend waiting for a heavy discount or a possible humble bundle pack. Lastly the story/plot is not good at all, a lot of these indie games are compelling to play because they often have clever plots with twists and turns, this is just nonsensical and very strange banter that has no real overall arc it just sets up the next level, it felt like filler to get play time up above what is probably only about 1hr of actual game play.

I do recommend this game if nothing else because the main game play is satisfying and it's a fairly unique concept but definitely wait until it's only a few pounds.