Recent reviews by Roo

Captivating gameplay with a concept that makes you wonder why nobody thought of it sooner. Balatro is a fun and creative game that is well deserving of being crowned Game of the Year.

Unplayable mess. Between crashes on AMD cards and full servers making it impossible to even play a bot match by yourself, I haven't gotten to actually play the game I paid for.

"It's just Tetris, how good could it b-"

For over a week now, I've obsessed myself over this game. Every bit of free time I've had has been spent playing it and whenever I can't play, I'm thinking about playing. Despite Hades already having an incredible 98% positive score, it feels wrong of me to review it in hopes that I can sway even a single person to give it a try.


The fun factor of Hades can't be exaggerated. The controls are sharp and satisfying, every weapon and upgrade gives a fun or interesting twist to the game. The artwork, storytelling and voice acting all draw you in to the game even further, making me more interested in Greek mythology than ever. Combat is satisfying and every enemy has attacks that are unique, counterable and well choreographed so the game always feels fair. Aside from the brief reprieve that your hub world gives, the game never feels slow. It's very common for the early stages of rougelikes to drag on since your character hasn't become powerful yet, but Hades' pacing is so on point that you're having fun the moment you drop into the first stage. In most roguelikes, I typically gravitate to a single character, weapon or build that strikes me as an immediate favorite, but I really enjoy using enjoy 5 of the 6 weapons (sorry Stygius) after having cleared the game with each of them.

So I've beaten the game with every weapon, I'm done with it? Nope. Clearing the game once is just one arc of the story and every subsequent attempt (whether failure or success) continues it. Even 24 hours into the game, I still have a ton of things left to do. Not only does your character get huge modifiers but so do your weapons, making every attempt feel fresh with genuinely compelling possibilities. I'm still getting surprised with new changes and challenges. This game has more depth, variety and replayability than any roguelike I've played to date.


It's not much, but my only complaint is regarding how you eventually get to the point where the only way to progress the story is to repeat what you've already done an innumerable number of times. The game never tells you "Okay, just do that X more times and then something big will happen," you just keep doing what you've already done and hope that something changes. For example, I've only just met Thanatos, an important character who only joins your hub world after you encounter him randomly, on my 26th run after having already beaten the final boss 5 times. Most players aren't going to beat this game five times so many players will never meet him, despite him being important to the main character's story. Again, there is no indication if you're getting any closer to a large turning point in the story, it's just a matter of trial and error that could end up taking dozens of hours. I still have no idea how close I am to the "end" of the game. EDIT: After over 27 hours, I've reached the "ending". You have to clear the game 10 times.


As you might have gathered from my last statements, this isn't the type of game to play through once and then shelf. Hades' layers require far more than just one completion to fully unravel. It's totally worth it if you're into that kind of game, just go into Hades with the mentality that beating it is only the beginning.

Additionally, the perceived difficulty of roguelikes will put a lot of people off, but Hades really isn't that challenging (until you beat it and unlock modifiers to make it as challenging as you want). I'd imagine most players will eventually reach a point where your mechanical skill along with your character's ever increasing power will ensure consistent clears. The true limiting factor is whether you have the patience to get to that point.


Hades is a stellar game that is worthy of your attention. I've played other Supergiant games before and, while I liked them, none of them have really attached to me like Hades has. Even my former king of roguelites, Dead Cells, which I've also reviewed very favorably, takes a back seat to what Hades has accomplished. This is THE roguelike/lite to play and it's one I'll never forget.

A bit of a hidden gem, Wizard of Legend is a fun and challenging rogue-like game that emphasizes on fast-paced action and fantastic customization. As what I would consider to be a direct upgrade to the critically acclaimed Enter the Gungeon, Wizard of Legend is an excellent game for rogue-like fans and couch co-op duos alike.


With tight controls, customizable loadouts, high difficulty, and satisfying combat, Wizard of Legend offers so much that makes the game feel great to play. Do you want to focus on using different elements so that you're effective against all types of enemies? Do you want to use spells that make aggressive combos when used in succession to keep enemies stun locked? Or would you rather build more defensively with spells that knock enemies away from you, giving you a positional advantage whenever your skills are off cooldown? The choice is yours and there tons of spells to mix and match to make the ideal build for your playstyle. Not many rouge-like games can offer this much variety without trivializing the game's difficulty, making this WoL's strongest and most unique trait.


While I do play a lot of couch co-op and thoroughly enjoy it, I wish it could be more fun for both players. While neither player is explicitly hindered, screen space is a valuable resource and co-op play sacrifices much of this because one player will often be at the edge of the screen running straight into upcoming enemies without much time to react. Compare this to solo gameplay where the single player is always at the center of the screen and the game is shown to not work as effectively. The players don't want to be too close to avoid getting hit by area of effect attacks, but they also can't be too far apart, which uses up valuable screen space. The result is awkward movement around one another as if the two players are connected with a string. Perhaps this is necessary in order to keep co-op balanced in comparison to venturing alone where a single death means the end of the run, but it doesn't feel good and means that it's only worth playing with someone else if you explicitly enjoy playing with them.


A common question about games of this type is "Is this a rogue-like or a rogue-lite?" as the difference between the two can be a deciding factor for some customers. The answer in this case is somewhere in the middle, but it's technically a rogue-lite. While progression in this game is mostly horizontal, meaning progress rewards the player with more options instead of making the character objectively stronger, there is the option to unlock different outfits, most of which give a small upgrade or two to the player. Since almost all of these outfits are better than the default outfit, some might consider this to break the legitimacy of the rogue-like tag, but my perspective is that you're given a choice of a minor stat boost or, for a slightly larger challenge, opt for no stat boost at all. It's not a big deal to me, but I understand that this is something that matters to a lot of other players.


Wizard of Legend is a fun and overlooked game that I think deserves more attention. Unlocking new spells and items means that the game always feels rewarding and mastery of the game makes one feel like a badass. This is a game that is worth the attention and even some devotion for its rewarding gameplay and mechanical fluidity.

There are few games that I've cherished throughout my life more than the original Crash Bandicoot games. The original games played a major role in making me the video game fanatic that I am today and the N. Sane Trilogy is the best version of these beloved games, despite a few drawbacks.

Note that, since the trilogy includes three full games, this review will be divided into four parts: a review for each game in the trilogy as well as a review of the N. Sane trilogy as a whole.


A PC remaster of the original Crash Bandicoot games was one of my biggest wishes and I'm so glad that it was finally made and with so much care and polish. The game looks and plays great, with consistent controls and added features that make it even better than the original PS1 titles.

The good

This is the best platforming that gaming has to offer. As a whole, everything about the Crash Bandicoot games is absolutely stellar. Great controls, beautiful environments, a very memorable soundtrack, and plenty of challenging content for completionists. Every gamer should play the first three Crash Bandicoot games, with the N. Sane trilogy being the version I would recommend due to how its fixed some of the aging scars that the original games had. I will never get tired of these games and I will continue to come back and play through them again once in a while, probably for the rest of my life. My children and my children's children will play this game and I will be forever proud to have this game on my Steam account. I ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ love Crash Bandicoot.

The bad

While it's definitely superior to the original trilogy, there is a single saddening flaw that the N. Sane remaster has: its save function. Unlike the original games, the N. Sane trilogy has an autosave function, which is great, except that, for some reason, only one of the four possible save files for each game can be the 'autosave' one. You can switch around the autosave file, but I HIGHLY advise against doing this. In this day and age, we're used to being able to autosave on each and every game, even having various save files all able to autosave. The N. Sane Trilogy does this in a very confusing way as only one save can use autosave at a time. Switching this around can very easy result in one of the saves being overwritten. If you haven't already guessed, this happened to me, wiping out my nearly completed 100% playthrough of Crash Bandicoot 3. I put some blood, sweat, and tears into getting some of those platinum relics and I haven't had the desire to rebuild since it was wiped. It's a sad truth that deserves to be pointed out - if not as a criticism, than a warning to other players.

Other things to consider

I feel that most fans of the original games will love this just as much or even more, but it's worth mentioning that the N. Sane trilogy soundtracks are remixes of the originals. They're... fine, I guess. It's a matter of preference. If you haven't played the original games, I recommend listening to the original soundtracks and comparing them to the updated versions in the remasters. I prefer the originals - they have some juicy bangers that are good enough to be worth seeking out separately.

By default, the N. Sane Trilogy has a framerate cap of 60 FPS. The game can support and uncapped framerate, but you have to trick the game into running at higher framerates through a tedious process that has to be done every time you launch the game. Once the framerate is uncapped through the workaround, it runs fine, but I wish it had to switch to an uncapped framerate without the workaround.


For me, this title has always been the weakest of the three. It did a lot for gaming at the time and I'm glad it served as the starting point for the second and third installments of the series, but it had plenty of shortcomings. The game is very difficult, exponentially moreso if you are aiming to 100% complete the game. I've beaten the game only once before, and I've never 100% completed it. Sadly, the boss fights are the easiest parts of the game. There isn't much to remember about the game aside from the frustrating difficulty of certain levels. This game isn't for everyone, but in all honesty, the second and third games are direct advancements to the first games and there isn't much reason to play the first, aside from telling people that you played it.

The good

• Innovative for its time
  
• Enjoyable man vs. nature setting
  
• A challenge to any% complete, sadistically difficult to 100% complete

The bad

• Bad boss fights
  
• Odd difficulty curves
  
• Weak gameplay in comparison to the second and third games

This game has it all. Memorable stages and music, the perfect amount of challenge and progression, excellent level design, rewarding gameplay, as well as everything I had already listed for the N. Sane Trilogy as a whole. Crash Bandicoot 2 has my highest recommendation. My one complaint is that the boss fights are where the game is weakest, particularly the final boss, but with how good this game is, it's an easy thing to overlook.

The good

• Satisfying platforming
  
• Amazing soundtrack
  
• Fun level design

The bad

• The boss fights suck

This is the easiest of the three games and tends to be the favorite title for most people. This is a great game and is probably the best title to start at if you're new to the Crash Bandicoot games. There are plenty of fun levels and bosses in this game, as well as plenty of challenge for completionists. I don't think it's as good as Crash 2, but it's still an excellent game that I absolutely love.

The good

• Diverse content
  
• High mobility makes it great for beginners
  
• Good soundtrack

The bad

• Gameplay is too varied and should be more direct
  
• Power ups like the double jump trivialize content
  
• Lack of platforming segments makes the game feel short

It might seem like I've nitpicked a lot about these three games, but these are titles that I really love and adore. I've played them extensively and I know them like the back of my hand, including their biggest strengths and shortcomings. The original trilogy will always hold a special place in my heart and Vicarious Visions has made a respectful remaster of the trilogy that is very much worth your attention.

Disclosure: I've played a few games from this installment of Jackbox previously with friends and I bought it so that I could try the other games on my own, so my real play time is a bit longer than what is shown on this account.

After having a great time with The Jackbox Party Pack 2, I was very excited to surprise my friends with the third installment and play it together. We booted it up over Stream to try it together and we were all disappointed with what we got. I've decided to include a few thoughts about each game in the pack.


Quiplash is a classic and probably my group's favorite Jackbox game. Quiplash 2 fixes a small problem with Quiplash XL by giving twice as much time to vote on answers, which my group appreciated, but the fun and thought provoking "The Last Lash" questions from before were replaced with un-funny twists, like using a few characters to complete a word or captioning a comic. On their own, these twists could make a decent game, but it doesn't feel like Quiplash and isn't as fun as the normal questions. Overall, I'd put this slightly below XL. It's a good game, but you're better off picking an earlier Jackbox pack if you just want Quiplash.


This one is my group's second favorite. The trivia part is fine and the punishment minigames are fun, but I really hate the final part of the game: a sort of trivia lightning round where dead players race to take the body of a living player (I know that sounds odd, but there's no quick way to explain it). What seems to happen is that two or more people will answer questions correctly to catch up with the living player to steal their body, but only one of those players gets the body. You could have two, three, or more players answer enough questions correctly to be put into the winning stretch, but ignored anyway. If you answer more questions correctly than a living player as they cross into the safe area, your success is once again ignored. I don't have to win to have fun and I can accept being screwed over by RNG, but it really feels like players are being robbed of deserved victories as the game makes up unspoken rules to keep them from winning at the last second. This game is a decent idea with poor execution. It's almost fun, but isn't.


Admittedly, we spent very little time playing this game. It's very slow and uninteresting. None of us want to play it.


Another game that has a decent idea, but poor execution. I was expecting to use the majority of my phone's screen for drawing freedom, like in Bidiots, but you're given a very small square on your screen to draw in - probably 10-15% of your phone screen, compared to the ~70% screen space box that you're able to draw in for Bidiots. Even if the area has to be a square, the box can be twice as big and still fit on everyone's screen. A long period is spent focusing on making three drawings, another long period is spent making captions to add to the drawings, and then there's more waiting as players are asked to make another drawing and another caption. The drawings each have a 90 second time allotment, meaning you can be waiting as long as four and a half minutes before you move on to the next part, which I think is another 90 seconds. After 6 whopping minutes, the game finally starts and players win by taking credit for others' drawings and captions. All that time spent making good or funny submissions just so another player can use them to win. Terrible design.


This is the one game from the pack that I didn't play. The reason being that it's pretty much impossible to play over a stream, which is a shame because I've been told that this is the best game out of the pack. I'm not docking any points for this one, it's my own fault for not getting to play it.

As someone who doesn't care for either Metroidvania games or Roguelike/lite games, Dead Cells was a fantastic surprise and the best game I've played from either genre.


This game is fun as hell. That may seem obvious, given my high rating of the game, but not all mechanically "good" games are fun and not all fun games are mechanically good. Dead Cells is both. There's never a dull moment in this game and gameplay is very satisfying. From weapon and enemy variety to unlockables and upgrades to sound design and smooth flow of pacing, the sheer enjoyment-factor is worth a paragraph of its own.

The visuals speak for themselves. Screenshots don't do the game justice, but watch some high-resolution video of Dead Cells and you'll see that it's a shining example of how pixel graphics can look fantastic. Spites are given high framerate animations and there are tons of visual details in the game, like how the sun shines on you from the moving background, making a very tasteful lighting effect even without washing out the gritty atmospheres of certain levels. I like how chains and other background items animate when you run past them.

I briefly mentioned sound design earlier, but it's worth emphasis that the sound design is really good. I'll never get tired of the ever-so-satisfying TING! sound of critical hits, or the sound of a defeated boss exploding into loot. The game's soundtrack is also great and will likely be something I'll get nostaligic for in a few years. A few of my favorite themes from the game are Promenade Of The Condemned, ClockTower, and Food Merchant. You can listen to (and purchase) the full OST here[valmontderagondas.bandcamp.com].

Progression in Dead Cells is done very well. I always hated the feeling that roguelike games left me with when I put blood, sweat, and tears into a game with nothing to show for it. Opting for the roguelite genre was a very smart move because it both removes that feeling and adds a lot of replayability to the game. I've just beaten the game for the first time at 14 hours of play time and I'm excited to hop right back in to unlock more stuff. Beyond measurable progression, I felt that Dead Cells has done a good job of teaching me how to deal with enemies. For example, I died when fighting the Timekeeper boss for the first time and I labeled her as "Hard as ♥♥♥♥". Every attempt after that, however, I beat her and she's become easier and easier to get past. In one attempted run, I was able to kill her in around 30 seconds. As the player, these accomplishments feel super good and is the reason why so many people love difficult games. With Dead Cells, it really feels like I grew with the game and beating it made me feel like I had become a stronger person.

Pseudo-random generation has gotten a bad reputation in video games and there are good reasons for that. In many past games, randomly-generated levels feel uninspired, they feel lazy, they feel illogical. Maybe you'll see the same few rooms over and over, just in a different order. Well, you know what? Screw what you know about pseudo-random generation because Dead Cells has perfected it. Every area of every run feels like it could have been specifically designed while the random generation keeps it fresh and achieves everything that some earlier games with this mechanic had hoped and failed to do. Random loot drops are given levels and rarities that can make crappy weapons and equipment very powerful. Gear is also given fun bonuses that can be 're-rolled' for a fee, allowing some random customization and tons of viable build combinations.


Dead Cells wants to be known for it's difficulty and, while there's nothing wrong with that, the game isn't always fair. There aren't any particular enemies or even bosses that make me feel this way, but there are often groups of enemies that can be overbearing. It sucks to get cornered by a group of enemies, permanently stunning you while you watch your full health bar drop. You might say that this teaches the player to carefully plan attacks, to lure and prioritize certain enemies and fight from a good position when facing the group, but... realistically, the strategy for dealing with groups is to stand back and throw traps or grenades at them until you pick off enough enemies to fight the rest by hand. Most games like this give a small window of invulnerability after your character takes damage, but not this one. If you have 20 enemies slapping you in the corner, it's near impossible to find a short window of opportunity to get out of it and, if you do succeed, you'll have done it at the cost of a ton of health. Everything else, including all of the current bosses, have seemed pretty fair.


As you've likely noticed, this is an Early Access review and Dead Cells is still subject to many changes before release. This review is for the game as of the time of writing (May 31, 2018 - Baguette Update) and I may change this review to reflect changes in upcoming updates. It's also worth mentioning that, despite being in Early Access, the game doesn't feel incomplete.


Great art, awesome soundtrack, fun as hell, and tons of replayability. Dead Cells is a great game and I look forward to its full release.

A 2015 PC release with a framerate lock at 30 FPS. I'm sure many people will tell me that's not enough to make it a bad game, but it's enough to prove it's not worth $25. Along with many crashes, this port is nothing less than disrespectful and has no place on the Steam store for its asking price.

An awesome expansion to an awesome game! So why don't I recommend buying it?

It's simple. Multiplayer.

Downloading the Ashes of Malmouth expansion makes it so that your version of the game isn't compatible with others who don't have the expansion. Check to see how many of your friends own Grim Dawn, then check to see how many of them own the expansion. At the time of posting this, I have 14 friends who own Grim Dawn but only ONE of them has this expansion. I cannot play with the other 13 friends of mine who own Grim Dawn unless they buy the expansion or I uninstall mine, which makes all of my character files inaccessible.

I really like Grim Dawn! So much so that I was more than happy to buy the expansion pack. Heck, I even bought the game for two of my friends so we could all play together. But no, my reward for paying extra for the expansion is not being able to play with friends.

Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed this expansion, but I'd have more fun if I were playing with my friends, especially since I spent good money on their game copies. I'm very disappointed with the way this expansion was implemented.