Recent reviews by PandaNoja

★ — 9/10 - Nice little adventure with exploration, farming, and crafting aspects.

Other than the death and destruction games I've bought over the holidays, I figured I could also use a cute game to balance them out and after checking out a couple of games, Yonder was my pick and thankfully, it wasn't a disappointment.

The world looks great, the characters and creatures are cute, the main story is pretty easy to follow and to understand, and all in all, it's just a relaxing experience. The farming and crafting aspects of the game are easy to understand but don't expect there to be an in-depth farming system because there isn't one. The crafting system isn't too complex either but has definitely more to it than the farming system. You join guilds for the various jobs and once you've fulfilled some quests for them you get the first tier of recipes from them. After that, you have to fulfill another quest to get the master title which gives you another tier of crafting recipes. Getting to the second tier recipes for each job can take a while but it really depends on how good you are with gathering resources.

Aside from the main quests, there are also plenty of side quests as well as a ton of other things to do, see, and find which requires exploring the entire map. There aren't many restrictions when it comes to exploring the map as you're pretty much free to go wherever you please within the world's boundaries.

Personally, I really enjoyed the game and can't really say anything negative about it. The only thing that bugged me was the character jumping backward whenever they're close to a wall or something which caused me to fall down cliffs numerous times and I had to take a detour to get back to where I actually wanted to go. Thankfully, one can't die from fall damage because there is none.

It took me about 15 hours to finish the game with all but 6 achievements done which I will sooner or later get to and finish eventually. As for replayability, I guess it depends on whether or not the developers add new features to the game. Maybe a more in-depth farming system, other things to work on, or new murk infested areas to explore and cleanse with more side quests. I wouldn't mind if it would become a little more challenging either.

Conclusion: If someone's into cute adventure games with an easy to follow story, crafting, farming, and exploration aspects then I'd definitely recommend this game, just don't expect anything too in-depth.

Suggestion for the developers: I enjoyed the game but personally, I really do think that you should get rid of the troll town. I know it's probably supposed to be a joke and funny but it's really not. It has absolutely nothing to do with the game or the story itself and literally serves no purpose whatsoever so it really shouldn't exist.

Well, that escalated quickly.

1/10 - Do not recommend, at all.

I know I've only played this game for half an hour but honestly, that really was half an hour too much. The gameplay is boring and the performance is atrocious. Only in certain areas I was able to get 60 fps and the majority of the time they lingered somewhere around 25 fps and sometimes even dropped down to 3 fps which is just, well, not pleasant, to say the least. You have no idea who you are, where you are, what you're doing, where you're going, and why. The monsters you encounter are always the same and do 0 damage to you unless they use their skill attacks. In the general, the world you wander around in feels empty and there isn't really much to do or see. The character dialogs are fine but there doesn't seem to really be much of a story because there is no explanation why you're supposed to go through with the tasks you're given and what's the point of them. When I came across the NPCs with the "Yo mamma" jokes, I honestly wondered if this game was made by a 12 y/o because, come on, they're so 1995. Overall, the game is simply not enjoyable and therefore really not worth playing. I'm not sure why the title says "Episode 1" but I sure hope there won't be another.

1/10 - Unplayable

In the current state the game is in it's simply unplayable. It freezes every 10 seconds for 20 seconds, resolution won't change, and can't switch from fullscreen to windowed mode because it will only mess up the screen.

I mean, I didn't exactly expect much from this game but I thought it would be playable at least.

5/10 - It's not bad but it's not good either.

I've played quite a number of HOGs so far and personally, I'm kind of unsure what to think of Ghost Encounters: Deadwood. It's a pretty basic HOG with a pretty basic story and it plays just like every other HOG. One thing that did bother me though, was that there's no option to change the language and that you basically have to trick the game in order to get it to work in a different language. For me, it started in German first and while the story text is alright, the hint text seems to be translated using a random online translator because most of the time, it doesn't make sense whatsoever.

Speaking of the hints. Personally, I found them to be not helpful at all and even more so when you can't understand what they're trying to say. I also feel that the pacing between the items you've found/received and the actual progression in the story was quite off because a lot of times you had quite a number of items in your inventory that you had no use for at that time which I found to be quite confusing.

Also, the puzzles that you had to solve, aside from the basic HOG puzzles where you have a list of items that you need to find, felt kind of repetitive and I would've wished for a little more diversity.

Overall, Ghost Encounters: Deadwood isn't necessarily bad, but it isn't good either which is why I give it a 5 out 10 rating. Since there's no neutral option, I'll have to give this game a thumbs down because personally, I didn't enjoy it all too much.

9/10 - Interesting HOG with a twist.

Personally, I really enjoyed this game. It has a decent story, all of the chapters are connected and lead to the final ending and even though the sound of the voice files was a little off sometimes, the voice acting, in general, was surprisingly good.

My original goal was to play one chapter a day but the story continued to capture my interested and made me want to know more about what's going on and so I ended up playing it in one sitting and even though it's been several hours, I'm not regretting it one bit.

I really enjoyed the different HOG puzzles, especially the narrative storytelling ones. If someone enjoys HOGs and unfolding stories about supernatural occurrences and crimes while playing the role of a detective then this is definitely a title for them.

This is the first game made by Mad Head Games that I've played and I'm not sure if the other games are like this as well, but maybe I'll check them out as well.

I used to love this game when I was a child and when I heard that they were going to remaster it I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. A lot of times I'm not too fond of remastered versions of old games that I used to enjoy playing a lot but in this case they did quite a decent job. I enjoyed playing the game and what I enjoyed even more is the small easter egg they put in there. Now I'm just waiting for a remastered version of the first Maniac Mansion to complete the collection.

3/10 - It's alright but far from great.

I don't want to say it's completely horrible because the story is alright but the gameplay is quite boring. I don't consider this game to be a hidden object game because honestly, there weren't any hidden object puzzle scenes. Sure, you have to find items to use somewhere else but no classic puzzles like you usually see in HOG. With 90 minutes of gameplay it's actually quite short and doesn't really explain why they've decided to add 15 trading cards for this game because you basically have to idle it for 2.5 hours to get the rest of the trading cards you didn't get during the first 1.5 hours it took to beat the game. There's no reason to replay the game either because there is nothing you could've possibly missed nor are the different endings or things to discover that would actually make it worth playing the game multiple times. Personally, I think the game was way too easy and too repetitive in its mechanisms and things you had to do to progress further in the story. A positive aspect is that the achievements are easy to get but other than that there's nothing I've personally really enjoyed about this game. I've played it and I've beat it but I definitely didn't enjoy it. Frankenstein: Master of Death and Dracula's Legacy were a lot better and more entertaining than this game.

7/10 - It's a little repetitive but still quite interesting. Would go on that trip again.

This is by far one of the trippiest games I've played in a long time. I guess you could consider it a mix between a walking simulator and exploration game. It's quite interesting to say the least. Honestly, I don't think there was a single moment during which I didn't wonder what in the world is going. You meet all sorts of strange people and everything around you becomes more and more surreal as you progress. It feels like you've been thrown into the head of someone who's given up on life and is drowning himself in alcohol and drugs and his mind is creating all these illusions or fantasies of a world that's better but no matter which world he creates it only gets worse and worse until he snaps back to reality and starts over again.

TL;DR - If you're looking for something that'll send you on a trip without actually taking drugs, this is it.

2/10 - Can't recommend.

I like horror games in general but there's been way too many of them that only consist of lousy jumpscares and loud noises but completely lack any kind of plot or story that can be followed and actually makes sense. I mean, technically it's not completely horrible but it would basically have to undergo a complete makeover to make it worth buying and playing. In the current state it's in it just feels unfinished and as if the developer simply wanted to make a game in a couple of days without any effort whatsoever which does not make it worth the $5. The only positive aspect for me right now are the trading cards which you basically have to idle because you're done with the game before the first one even drops.

TL;DR - Not worth the money in the current state it's in. Needs a complete makeover then it might be better.