Recent reviews by Big Sugoi ⸢すごい⸥

This is easily the most recommendable game in my library at the moment. Obviously if you aren't interested in tabletop games or are of the "I rather play with real life friend's" crowd it may not be for you, but otherwise there is no reason not to be eyeballing this game.

As a simulator it's quite robust. I've found a few small issues here and there but these are minor and don't really make themselves felt until you've played for a considerable amount of time (50+ hours). So far though there hasn't been a game I've tried to play in Tabletop Simulator that I was unable to play due to limitations of the simulator, and although there are a few games I can think of that would be harder to play in this simulator, the vast majority of games play just fine.

That being said, the workshop content of this game is what makes it so recommendable. The basic package comes with classic games like Chess and Checkers, but if you delve into the workshop you'll find tons of great games available at the click of a button. Some copyrighted favorites are regularly taken down due to DMCA strikes, but plenty are not (and plenty of Kickstarter backed games allow their games to be uploaded). Take a gander over to the workshop page for this game and search/browse before buying it, I'm sure you'll find more than a few games you like there.

Lastly, this game is great with friends, whether they are friends you know in real life or oversea buddies. Grab a mic and a few friends and start working through that workshop content, if you're able to do this I guarantee you'll be happy with your purchase. If that's not possible, I've made my way into a few public games and have had a pretty okay experience there. Many pubs tend to have mics and usually one person is willing to explain to everyone the rules of the current game. I've had my occasional issue with the griefer who comes in and messes with everything but for the most part it's been pretty good. Plenty of tabletop games have solitaire modes as well, so even if playing with friends isn't an option all the time, you can always try your hand with solo play.

I started playing Tabletop Simulator and I almost never played tabletop games, now a half year later since buying it I have 250 non-idle hours into this game and I've tried close to 50 different games out and have had a blast playing them all. It's even helped me find a few games that I'd definitely like to buy in person for when I do get the chance to play with real life friends. Get this game. It's worth it.

Qbeh-1: The Atlas Cube is a beautiful little atmospheric first person puzzle platformer. A good comparison game would be Q.U.B.E., both Qbeh-1 and Q.U.B.E. feature a very atmospheric world where the story is without narrative and open to interpretation. One of the most notable differences is that, unlike in QUBE which had some color puzzles and other such puzzles, Qbeh-1's puzzle mechanics, although varying, focus around different ways to move your character around a level. In this sense I found the game captured something of older platforming collect-a-thons, the levels themselves get rather large and many times you find yourself scaling a large tower...and add in the secret golden pyramid on each level and it really homes in on that collect-a-thon feel. This game also does a good job in encouraging you to explore, don't expect every piece of the puzzle to be out in the open for you to get your hands on, sometimes you need to look around and check the nooks and crannies to find what you need, something I wish other puzzle platformers did just a bit more.

I really don't think there is much else to say, the gameplay is superb and the aesthetics really set a nice mood (the music is stellar!) I'm glad I bought this when I did and I'm glad I played it. I found the six hours playthrough to be satisfying, and despite having a huge backlog to get through, I am looking forward to continuing by finding the remaining golden pyramids and unlocking the bonus world. Highly recommend to puzzle platformer fans!

Hexcells is one of the best logical puzzle games on Steam. It has a nice clean look and has a no-nonsense approach... it gets you right into the puzzling and teaches you how to play with a very unintrusive "tutorial". Every puzzle can be beaten without hints, and the harder levels will really test your lateral thinking skills. For that matter, I can't think of any game on Steam that test your lateral thinking more than Hexcells, with the exception of the sequels which include more approaches to solving puzzles.

You cannot go wrong with the Hexcells games if you want some quality logical puzzlers.

P.S. If you really like Minesweeper and have played it for more than a few hours you're going to want to switch the keybinds in Hexcells since they are the opposite of Minesweeper (left click by default marks "mines" and right click clears safe spots). Never understood that, I guess the developer never actually played Minesweeper

Updated Note: The developers seem to have the rights to the IP now and by all accounts are working on getting the second half of the game!

When it comes to ARPGs, Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms travels down the road less traveled, managing to not only deviate from what has become a tired and overused model but to do so with style. ARPGs very rarely have a captivating story but I found Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms to be an exception, that's not to say it's as good a story as found in story-driven games, but it does it's job well and draws you in. Add in exceptional voice acting and great aesthetics and you have a game with a lot of good components working together. I found myself quite immersed with this game and had more urge to play through this game start to finish than any other ARPG since the Mass Effect trilogy.

That's not to say this game is flawless, it does have it's problems but I found that the pros far outweighed the cons. I had some crashing issues on a single map, I found the developers use of foreshadowing was a bit heavy-handed at times, and the game started off a bit slow due to the nature of how combat works. The game does start out with a fair amount of story telling, but once you get through that you are left to delve into the combat with a fledgling group.

Combat revolves around the demon you play, who can bind the souls of deceased beings, making them a part of your party. At the beginning of the game you have just the demon and the main hero in your "party." You only control one party member at a time, but each party member is unique and brings something different to the table, this is a very interesting dynamic that makes combat a lot of fun...when you actually have a full party to choose from. Fortunately after a few hours of play you should have a full team and from there on out combat is generally well paced and far more fun to play. There is a party limit of four, but you can always travel to your home base and change the roster. During combat you can switch to any of the active party members. I found this to add a lot to the combat, you can change the unit you are playing on based on situational factors and also rotate characters based on their spells cooldowns. I thoroughly enjoyed the combat once I had a full party. Individual spells might not be the most exciting but the fact you can switch characters at any point more than makes up for it.

All in all, I really enjoyed the experience in Book 1. I was definitely eating this game up and was only putting it down to play co-op games with friends. The story was a lot of fun to follow throughout and I enjoyed going through most of the dialog, I didn't even skip over the voice acting by and large (just about all dialog is accompanied by voice acting). The combat was equally enjoyable once I got into the core of the game. Add the two elements together along with everything else the game does great and you have the exceptional game that is Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms (Book I). I'm definitely keeping my fingers crossed that Book II sees the light of day, it would be a shame for the series die after such a strong start.

P.S. The game has an awesome orchestral soundtrack, here is a sample: https://youtu.be/IeTPR0teXZw

If you have sixteen minutes to spare and you enjoy a non-challenging point & click adventure then check out The Old Tree. It's a true free-to-play game where you take the role of a young alien hatchling who is yearning for some adventure.

Take the addictiveness of 2048, throw it into a roguelike game, add some terrain, baddies, and environmental hazards and you have The Nightmare Cooperative. The game deviates from the standard roguelike path by adding more of a puzzle vibe. Like in 2048, you control your units by moving in one of four directions, all units move at the same time in the same direction each turn if able. Of course like any good dungeon crawler, there is no lack of enemies and other hazards to slash your way through or sneak around. The end result is some really fun gameplay that requires lots of foresight if you wish to make any real progress. It's simple to learn and easy to play nature notwithstanding, it offers a nice little challenge.

If you were to cross Bladerunner with The Dresden Files into a quality tactical strategy RPG hybrid, the result would no doubt be something very akin to Shadowrun Returns. Shadowrun Returns excels at story telling, the game is rich with lore, well written dialogues that feel more conversational than what most games accomplish, and a structured story full of plot twists and interesting characters. Perhaps my favorite point about the story is that it starts out small-scale, you are on a simple mission to look into the death of a friend, but it slowly ramps up into something larger as the story progresses. To top it off the game is set in a beautiful futuristic game world and has solid tactical gameplay to boot.

More than anything this game to me was about an awesome sci-fi detective story. The mystery and intrigue suck you in, the stellar writing especially in regards to dialogue keeps you hooked. I'm not saying the game mimics what street talk may actually be like in the future, but it was great enough to get me immersed in the street life of futuristic Seattle. The characters within the game range from annoying (intentionally so), charming, grumpy, and likeable; chatting with the regulars throughout the story and going through the different chat options was something I enjoyed doing (shout out to Mr. Kluwe, you're the man, man!). The game's audio and visuals do justice to this story, bringing it to life with stunning hand drawn environments and appropriately mood setting music.

The game's combat also leaves little to be desired. Although I felt the large scale management of the game to be a little inconsistent...for example the money you earn throughout the story can go into temporary lulls, and if you need to do a mission when you aren't expecting it you may find you don't have enough money to buy a full team of mercs. The game runs similar to most other tactical RPG games, especially similar to the XCOM series. You use the terrain to your advantage and in a turn based fashion you move your team about and order them to attack or use utility items/spells. On hard the game isn't terribly difficult and you shouldn't have to think deeply each turn on how to best arrange your team and how to best utilize there action points (how many actions they can take per turn). The combat is a bit sparse at the beginning of the game but as you progress further you start to battle the baddies more often and that's when the fun starts.

Shadowrun Returns is a solid tactical RPG game, and with the addition of the Steam workshop can keep you playing well beyond the twelve hour campaign. The game's story is strong and the characters within are fun ones. It's nice to play a detective style game that isn't a point and click for a change. The game is quite gripping and just like any good detective novel it kept me at the edge of my seat until I got through to the end.

A heart-wrenching tragedy wrought with loss and sorrow, a bittersweet love story the likes of which are never seen in video games, an unbelievable experience that's as breathtaking as it is unforgettable——these are just a few of the things that Transistor has been for me. And don't think that I lavish the game with verbose and flattering descriptions idly either, this game swept me from my feet the moment I loaded it up and delved into the imaginative world it offered. Rarely have I been so immersed in a game and never before, not even in Supergiant Games' previous game Bastion, have I felt so emotionally involved in a game's story——it was refreshing to experience a game where I felt a surge of raw emotions... from frustration, to despair, to grief. And to add icing to the cake, this game's audio and visual presentation blows every other indie game out of the water... each time I step away from the game and come back to it, I'm still shocked to realize just how beautiful a game it truly is.

Red, the character whose role you assume, finds herself in a strange and unsettling predicament after being attacked by a mysterious organization known as the Camerata. With the help of her companion, the Transistor (a.k.a. Breach()), she must seek answers from this mysterious group and fight the newly arrived threat of the Process. The Process comes in many forms, and Red with the Transistor in hand, must face off against them. The combat in this game is a hybrid between fast paced action and tactics. Red can be equipped with up to four active Functions and four passive Functions (essentially abilities). Each Function can also act as an upgrade for Function already equipped as an active ability. This allows for quite a lot of customization. Furthermore, there are Limiters, which act as a way of increasing the challenge within the game. Enable a handful of limiters and you'll easily find yourself tuning and customizing your Functions to overcome some of the harder encounters and challenges. There is definitely challenge to be had in this game if you seek it, and exploring all the customization options is one of the highlights of the game's combat system——some of the Function combos are ingenious and finding such a badass combo is always a joy.

And while the game's combat system is superb, I'd probably rate it as the weakest feature simply because every other aspect of the game is so near perfection. The audio and visuals of the game are no exception. Anyone who has played Bastion should know from experience alone to expect something amazing when it comes to how a Supergiant Games' game should look and sound, and despite such high expectations they wouldn't be disappointed with Transistor. The game is just mesmerizingly stunning, to the point that it's hard to describe in words just how remarkable it is. It has to be played to be appreciated at the level it deserves. From gorgeous hand drawn scenery, to the hauntingly beautiful lighting, to art filled cutscenes... this game is beautiful. Audio is no exception either with solid voice acting (the voice of Rucks from Bastion voices the Transistor), perhaps the best original soundtrack in the entire industry which I could write an entire second review on alone, and don't forget Red's incredible humming prowess.

Although the game presents perhaps the most extraordinary sensory experience in the indie scene, to me the true selling point of this game is the story and the way it is presented. There is a lot going on in this game and it's worth getting involved in. Read what's happening at the terminals, read the bios, listen to the audio logs——it pays off. But most importantly, listen to what Transistor says. Stop and listen. Pay attention. And when Red responds to Transistor via typing, just don't quickly read what she says but feel what she says. Following the connection between the two is what sucked me into the story and got me involved with it in a much more personal way. There is a lot of character depth for both Red and Transistor, and an equal depth in regards to the relationship between the two. Putting myself in the shoes (or heels, I suppose) of Red was a surreal experience, and feeling the pain, frustration, longing, and love through her perspective is what made this game something special.

The developers put love and care into making this game. The story is strong, no doubt. But I think what makes it stand out is that the developers built this game bottoms up starting with the story. Scene by scene crafting the perfect medium to tell this story, at every point making critical decisions about what music to be playing, what visuals to show, what Transistor's monologue should be; at every cutscene and at every interlude, deciding how best to portray the story through artwork and song. And by my reckoning it worked, they took a story and found the best way——the perfect medium——to tell it, and the product is Transistor. I've seen people refer to video games as a form of art before, but Transistor joins a miniscule list of games that I have played and feel as if I can share such a sentiment having played it.

In today's day and age, Spiderweb Software's games may seem like a novelty, but make no doubt that for the right audience they are exceptionally good games that offer a lot of bang for their buck. Avernum: Escape From The Pit is a modernized version of the Avernum series, and while the graphics are still not flashy the game more than makes up for it with good writing and solid turn based combat.

The game is a text heavy one, a blessing or a curse depending on the person playing. The writing is stellar and coupled with the low-key graphics it's one of the few games where you can really use your imagination if you so wish. It is worth noting that Avernum is an open-world RPG, so while I say the writing is stellar, don't expect a centralized story with deep characters--that's not what this game is. The game itself takes place in a huge underground cave complex, a joy for those like me who like underground fantasy settings and even for those who don't should still appreciate the unique and interesting world Avernum presents.

Avernum is lengthy, but if it's your type of game it will feel just right, making it a great game to pick up if you're on a budget. One playthrough alone will take about seventy to eighty hours if you are a semi completionist, and even if you aren't I would wager it would take a good fifty hours to beat. Throw in harder difficulties and achievements and you can easily extend that playtime twofold.

The combat is fairly atypical for a turn based game, but by no means bland. Each ally/enemy gets one turn per round and there are different types of characters your party can contain (priests, mage, etc.). The game is open world as mentioned and it lets you explore the world on your own, the game guides you very loosely but the bulk of the exploration is up to you to do. As thus, you can easily find yourself faced off against baddies that are higher level than you which can keep the game challenging even on normal difficulty.

Open world exploration in the deep caves of Avernum mixed with some awesome writing and very interesting in-game encounters made this game a blast, but one of the things I liked most was how seamlessly the keyboard was integrated into the game. With the exception of needing to use my touchpad to click on a few interactive objects in the game world and assigning character stats/equipping items, just about everything you need to do in-game can be done with just the keyboard. Conversations, looting, fighting, moving--can all be done with the keyboard. If you're playing at home on your desktop, this may not mean much, but if you want to play this on a laptop without a mouse handy, this game is the one. Very few RPGs can be played on low-end laptops and even fewer can be played without a mouse, but Avernum is perhaps the only game I've played that's required mouse/touchpad input so sparsely. I feel like I could have enjoyed an amazing RPG experience from any Spiderweb game, but this one stands out to me due to the stellar keyboard integration.

Puddle is a liquid physics platformer, for the better part of the game you control liquid which you much guide to the end of each level. Obstacles and hazards stand in your way, if you venture too close to these the liquid "protagonist" will diminish, lose too much mass and it's game over. It's a unique idea, at any rate I haven't heard of another liquid physics platformer out there. As you progress through the game you will encounter a lot of different mechanics as well as different liquids (which each have their own properties). I will say that I appreciate and applaud the many great ideas that the developers had for these different levels, and the overall variety from biome to biome (and sometimes even from level to level) was one of the most enjoyable aspects of this game.

Unfortunately, it is also one of the worst aspects of the game. While a lot of these levels were enjoyable to play, others however were downright frustrating and even counter-intuitive at times. I don't discredit the interesting ideas behind some of these problematic levels, but somewhere along the lines something didn't translate. If I didn't know any better, I feel like this might have been noticed during testing and Q&A, because one of the "features" of the game is the ability to skip levels by using the "Skip and Whine" feature. Sounds to me like somewhere along the lines the developers were aware of these frustrating and poorly design levels and rather than remove or improve, they decided to add a skip feature mocking who should so dare to dislike a level.

This is conjecture of course, what I can say that levels like the ones where your controls are reversed for the entire level ended up making me hate playing the game. It might be worth picking up in a bundle, especially if you are unlike me and don't mind using the "skip and whine" feature, just be warned that you can only "skip and whine" so many levels until you have to go back and beat some of them to skip more. At the end of the day, I was glad when I beat the game. Not because I was glad to beat it, but I was glad it was over. I will reiterate that there is a lot of great ideas in the game, plenty which work, but it's the bad ones that really put a stopper to the enjoyment and have ultimately led me to rate this down.