Recent reviews by Globster

Little Inferno: Ho Ho Holiday is a Christmas holiday DLC for Little Inferno released after a whopping ten years since the game’s release! What a lovely surprise! This game is the perfect holiday / end-of-the-year experience, mark my words. So now is the ideal time to revisit this old indie classic.

“Ohhhh I hope they releeeease a fREEEE UPDATE of Leeeettle Inferno fireplace…” ― Sugar Plumps (Well, it costs only 4.99 €, and it’s totally worth it.)

My review for the base game: https://steamcommunity.com/id/globster/recommended/221260

Suppose you already played through the original Little Inferno campaign in the past. In that case, consider jumping into the DLC immediately because you can get all the achievements from the original campaign by playing this DLC, and the playthroughs are similar. However, the original game has a beautiful story and is short, so it's worth it to play through the original first.

Pros:
- The holidays are almost here, and this classic 2012 game got a new DLC! Who would have guessed? They say video games are perishable consumer goods. However, some games are good enough that they deserve to get a breath of fresh air and attract new players, and Tomorrow Corporation made it happen.
- The original Little Inferno campaign got re-decorated and is ready for Christmas. We get a new character of 8-bit Nate, who partially replaces Sugar Plump’s role from the original. Prepare for a thrilling and spooky new story.
- New toys and Christmas thingamajigs to burn! Many new combos to figure out.

Neutral:
- Playing this DLC right after the original game might be tiresome for some people, as the changes are a little bit too subtle, and the base game is still there.

Cons:
- In my opinion, the original campaign had a stronger story than this DLC, so it’s worth it to play or replay the base game before playing this nice little addition.


7/10
Little Inferno: Ho Ho Holiday is a solid addon to this beautiful game and makes it a Labor of Love Steam Award contender!


I have unlocked all achievements in this game!
https://steamcommunity.com/id/globster/stats/221260

Little Inferno got a Christmas holiday DLC update with achievements a few days ago after a whopping ten years since the game’s release! What a lovely surprise! This game is the perfect holiday / end-of-the-year experience, mark my words. So now is the ideal time to revisit this old indie classic.

“Ohhhh I hope they releeeease a fREEEE UPDATE of Leeeettle Inferno fireplace…” ― Sugar Plumps (Well, it costs only 4.99 €, and it’s totally worth it.)

My review for the Ho Ho Holiday DLC: https://steamcommunity.com/id/globster/recommended/2108900

Pros:
- The gameplay is straightforward as it uses only the left mouse button. You burn your toys away in a wonderfully cozy fireplace. It’s a fantastic scheme for a casual game or a parody of one. And you can never lose the game. There is no pressure, just discovery, and relaxation. Treat your Gamer Grandmas, folks!
- Thankfully, behind this simplistic facade lies a profoundly deep, memorable story that is a metaphor for our beloved hobby of gaming and how we spend our short time in this fascinating Universe (cosmos irl). Plus other things, because the message of this game has many interesting interpretations.
- Creepy-cute atmosphere all around. The things you burn are always funny and cute and disturbing. I smiled and laughed a lot while playing this game.
- Sitting in front of a fireplace and watching things burn while it’s deadly cold outside your house makes Little Inferno a great Christmas holiday game. The story also deals with themes like childhood, growing up, and new beginnings, which nicely complements the contemplative mood of the year’s end. This game made me cry several times.
- Excellent graphics, audio, and a beautiful soundtrack make the simple gameplay and interactions with lovely characters through letters entertaining and memorable.
- However casual the gameplay might be, figuring out all the combos of things to burn can prove pleasurably challenging at times, testing language skills when figuring out wordplays and puns and testing your memory of everything you’ve already burned. Getting all achievements without a guide is a nice challenge.

Neutral:
- When you shop for new stuff to burn, a repetitive jingle plays, which might get annoying when trying to figure out the more complicated combos.
- Even though this game is short, some repetitiveness might set in.
- Short length of about four hours. However, this time can increase when trying to get all combos and achievements.

Cons:
- The game’s perceived simplicity might put some players off.
- Waiting for items to arrive or be available again is annoying sometimes, but there are almost always letters from characters to read, or you can read the item descriptions in the shop. The time delays are an important mechanic making the existential message of the game about the meaningless wasting of time even deeper.


8.5/10
Little Inferno is an amazingly charming short classic indie game conveying a profound message about gaming and life, and it should be on every gamer’s radar.


I have unlocked all achievements in this game!
https://steamcommunity.com/id/globster/stats/221260

Entropy : Zero 2 is the sequel to the popular 2017 Half-Life 2 mod, Entropy : Zero. Since its release, the community’s reception of this mod has been overwhelmingly positive, with players frequently invoking vaporware like Half-Life 2: Episode Three or even mirages like Half-Life 3 and comparing it to a “regular” Valve-level sequel. Let’s call this Opposing Force 2 and stamp a 30€ price tag on it for crying out loud.

Pros:
- You again get to see the world of Half-Life 2 as the bad guy, a wise-cracking Combine Elite soldier with free will, happy to propagate Combine’s dominance while trying to achieve his personal goals.
- You can command your own squad of Combine soldiers, which is cool, even if they sometimes serve only as meat shields.
- The world of this mod looks gorgeous, as Source Engine once again proves capable of helping realize a creative vision in visual fidelity that can compete with modern games.
- The plot is captivating and well-written. Many memorable moments tickle any Half-Life fan’s fancy. Read Epistle 3 by Marc Laidlaw once again before playing for extra feels.
- Gunplay feels excellent and is on par with, for example, MMod. Combat is entertaining and challenging. Like with any HL2 game/mod, I recommend you to play on Hard, even if it’s your first time.
- A lengthy single-player campaign filled with tons of great, original content will entertain you for about 8 hours.
- Rebels and Xen creatures were not copy-pasted from HL2 but improved and expanded. Rebels come with crossbows, jetpacks, and Aperture Science Long Fall Boots. New fauna includes species from the first Half-Life, plus a few other surprises.
- Wilson, my beloved! I loved carrying this great and helpful (can open supply closets) companion turret through the entire game. He outperforms Gnome Chompski from Episode Two by a long shot.
- Heavy Portal 1 and 2 (or even Episode Three) vibes.

Neutral:
- I enjoyed the humorous memetic remarks of the protagonist and thought they were a nice change of tone compared to the more somber games from the Half-Life series. However, it might not be to everyone’s liking. The humor balances out the still-serious story.
- The lengthy zombie Gonome stealth section seemed clunky to me. However, it proved as a nice change of pace.
- The challenge mode is more a chore than a challenge because you can cheese some of the objectives.

Cons:
- A few crashes to the desktop.
- The first half seems better than the second half.
- I can’t pay for this.

Verdict:
It’s a must-play for any Half-Life fan. The quality and amount of content are astounding for a free-to-play mod.


9/10


I have unlocked all achievements in this game! https://steamcommunity.com/id/globster/stats/1583720

As cursed as cursed can get. It's an excellent, unique experience worth the small admission price. Psychedelia, surrealism, cuteness, and twisted horror.

I chose this game as the first game to play after not properly playing any single-player game for at least eight months, and I couldn't have chosen a better one. This game captures what I love about games in general, and it's the unbounded human creativity in a medium capable of creating unforgettable interactive experiences. This game got so much love put into it, and it's simply an excellent piece of art.

Although only the left mouse button is needed to play through this beautiful 2D puzzler, interactivity with the scenes is very rich. It allows for the progressive unfurling of incredibly twisted imagery as you solve straightforward yet brilliant puzzles. You must often wait and watch things unfold on the screen after interacting with something, like in a real dream. The cursor appears again when you know you can interact again. Sometimes the puzzles get challenging and even frustrating with the unskippable repeating actions, and at other times the interactions seem cumbersome and lengthy (edit: this was caused mainly by my 144 Hz monitor, there was a bug in the game that's fixed now), but it all feels seamless because you get captivated with the visuals.

There are no texts or voiceovers in-game, with only the protagonist reacting with various sympathetic vocalizations. The game heavily relies on excellent sound design and music, which makes all interactions very entertaining. That's what we are used to in games by the Czech studio Amanita Design. The exciting new aspect here is the horror. Even though the imagery can get seriously creepy, it's all adorable and funny, as you'd expect from a little boy's nightmares populated by many bizarre characters. It's a unique non-conforming experience, and I loved it for that as it felt so fresh.

Like in dreams, the story is indeterminate and open to interpretation, which I love about this kind of game. It touches subjects like bullying, traumas, childhood, and of course, nightmares full of toys and overcoming one's fear to get them back. The ending is surprising and makes the game even darker.

I've never tried any drug in my life, but I'm sure this could work well as some sort of twisted stoner comedy/horror because it's extraordinarily imaginative.

Please note: Happy Game is not a happy game.

8.5/10

+ unforgettably detailed art style, characters and interactions, very original sound design and captivating synth/freak-folk music, unique cute horror experience
- very short (2 to 3 hours, small replay value), unskippable scenes might annoy you a bit, using only the left mouse button can prove laborious and monotonous

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I've unlocked all achievements! 11 of 11 (ez 100%): Achievements list

Překlad recenze do češtiny: Databáze her [dbher.cz]

Add the Czech language to the list of the supported languages on the Steam Store page immediately! I don't care you don't get to put your little blue tick in the Full Audio column for Czech like you did for all the other obviously more important world languages. (I don't even understand the real need for a Czech localization of this game, perhaps because Poland shares borders with us?)

I poured my heart and soul into this translation job, and I nearly lost my nerves when I found an offensive mistake made by the proofreader in one of the main menu's lines! Good job paying him, I guess. But my localization deserves to be on the Steam Store page, so your game can appeal more to the small Czech gaming community. You can make a fast buck out of this, Varsav Game Studios! :)

I don't care that Czech hasn't been mentioned on the Epic Games Store page for over a year now. It has to appear on Steam because Steam and your game rock!

Sincerely, the translator you commissioned

The game itself has beautiful graphics, fantastic music, good writing, and relaxing casual gameplay, a bit lacking in depth. The developer continues to update this game, so I'm hoping for someone to remedy this trivial Czech localization discrepancy.

Peace!

After a minor flop with Trine 3, the team at Frozenbyte have proved once again, they know their craft well, this time without much unnecessary experimentation.

What will strike you first is the developers' high standard of creating a fantasy, fairy-tale world of great visual quality. The world is filled with wondrous creatures and is teeming with rich flora. The environments are adequately varied. Characters' models and facial animations could have been more elaborate, but it's still wonderful, considering it's an indie production.

Puzzle design and character progression are the best in the series and it will keep your grey matter pretty busy throughout the game's 15-18 hours game time. The game frequently introduces new mechanics and means to solve problems by unlocking many character traits and skills.

What I didn't like that much was the story. Chasing a wayward prince that has little to no interest in solving his problems gets tiresome after a while. The trio of heroes may come off as a little naïve in pursuing this quest. I also did not enjoy fighting the various nightmarish wolves and goatman archers, serving no other purpose than to slow down the player with petty challenge and provide relief from the never-ending puzzle-solving. Fighting goblins and skellingtons in the previous games proved much more satisfactory and difficult. The whole game is much more than satisfactory though. It's not much of an evolution but rather a return to the roots, that made the series so strong, successful, and enjoyable for people of all ages.

+ return of the classic, colorful world, rich and challenging puzzles, polished
- trite story, annoying fighting arenas

7.5/10

https://steamcommunity.com/id/globster/stats/690640/achievements/ 39 of 39

I really really wanted to like this game. I did like it, but it only lasted for a few hours. You obviously can't get a decent AAA game for just 30€ nowadays. Youngblood has good world-building in terms of quality of art assets and graphics, but it extremely lacks in the area of writing or any sensible character development. The gameplay alone is a horrendous grind-fest with everything you can think of: respawning enemies, recyclable locations used in soulless "quests". Idiotic daily and weekly challenges included. I invested 31 hours into this ridicule of a paying customer from acclaimed developers and will hardly ever return to it ever again, never!

5.5/10

A deep, amazingly written, mature story with transcendental moral, psychological, political and philosophical scope set in an expansive, astonishingly well-designed universe that is a hard sci-fi setting but, in the end, very similar to our own. The narrative never ceased to surprise me with its development, and I'm still a few hours away from the suicide mission's end. I must laud the developers for sharp graphics, amazing soundtrack, and sound design. The gameplay is wonderful as well, perfect in its simplicity, yet offering a wide range of tactical possibilities, as you learn to control your crew's varied biotic, tech and combat abilities.

Without hesitation, one of the best games I've ever played. It builds upon the wonderful original and upgrades all of its assets. I'm sad that BioWare went downhill a bit with the sequel and a lot with Andromeda.

9.5/10 (there are a few blemishes that prevent a perfect score e.g.: the annoying repetitive minigames (use the No MiniGames mod) and the lack of DLC on Steam)

This game ruined my life. 10/10

The release of this Episode signified a hope of something bigger coming in the near future. We got that with The Orange Box and Episode Two wouldn't have been possible without the evolution the Half-Life architecture went through in Episode One.

It's evident that this installment is mainly about Alyx, her emotions, reactions and her relationship with Gordon. In the beginning, she is delighted to find you amidst the rubble. She is given a lot of space to express her anxiety about going back inside the Citadel to delay the reactor's core's meltdown and whispers your name at the very end of the Episode.

She is your companion and will stand by your side through most of the game. Her AI and reactivity were improved a ton as she is very helpful, moves away when she gets in your way, and you can count on her during the more precarious situations. In the chapter Lowlife when you are left wandering through pitch black underground garages, you will have to cooperate with Alyx by using light sources like your flashlight to illuminate zombies so that she can shoot them.

There are no new weapons, just the good old Valve creativity. They added flares that can light zombies on fire. Antlions now spawn from burrows that can be sealed with car wrecks using the Gravity Gun and a new combination of an armored Combine soldier and a zombie dubbed Zombine is present. Graphically the game's lighting was drastically improved with the addition of HDR.

The overall mood of the game is again top-notch. The landmark of Citadel is now a looming threat of catastrophic proportions. City 17 is more ruined than ever. I spent a long time just brooding over the destroyed cityscape and listening to Dr. Kleiner's emergency broadcast turned motivational speech.

"For what the Combine fear the most is not any tangible human weapon, but our will, our intellect, our ability to respond selectively and rationally to every terror they turn against us. We place our firmest hope in the human spirit, even knowing how easily it may be shattered."

9/10

+ Alyx's emotional maturity and improved AI set a new milestone for video game companions, the true Half-Life atmosphere enhanced by apocalyptic imminence, Zombines and their distorted voices, excellent soundtrack, prepares the ground for the next Half-Life adventure
- extremely short (can be beaten in under 3 hrs)