Recent reviews by Ryuuga Hideki

It's almost amazing how companies like Gearbox and 2K can take pretty good games like Borderlands 1 and 2, improve the overall moment-to-moment gameplay mechanics, and yet somehow push out a turd of a game like Borderlands 3 after keeping fans waiting so many years.

I included a spoiler warning, but there's honestly nothing here worth warning about.

The characters and story are a definite level below what you see in 2. That's not to say that the predecessor is a bastion of good writing, but in comparison to this game it's Shakespearean. Pointless and annoying plot points/twists abound with the sole purpose of hammering home just how "badass" and "terrifying" the current (lame) bad guys are, to the point of going out of their way to de-power one of the main characters just for the sake of plot progression and then completely kill off another main character. Which is quickly, partially backtracked - and by quickly I mean rushed in the final couple of acts - where the first main character gets their power back and you kill the main baddie. RIP Maya though. Not sure if anyone actually liked you, but you deserved a better send off all the same.

There were a few (admittedly crass) throwaway lines that made me chuckle if not outright laugh out loud, but those were in the minority overall.

The story was also unnecessarily bloated overall. So many times the story seemed to be ramping up to its finale, only for it to ungracefully keep on adding "gotcha!" moments while limping on to its eventual conclusion. Stretching out to multiple planets may sound like a good thing to some longtime fans of the series, but it's far more cruft than quality for the sake of expanding game time. Even the variety of scenery seems pretty on-par with what was offered in Borderlands 2.

Then there's the preponderance of rare/legendary tier loot that continually makes it feel ever more worthless. There was always a persistent level of swapping out guns in the previous two main games, but that pales in comparison with the power creep and number of "legendary" weapons you'll be selling on the regular. Orange is the new purple, and it's no more satisfying to find one than a common item anymore in this game. (Except for a few standouts which are absurdly OP to the point I used the same shotgun for nearly half of the game. which then is leaning way too hard in the opposite direction that it's boring to not find a suitable replacement.)

At least some of the cosmetics are fun and you can unlock most of them through gameplay - I happened to unlock a skin that made my weapons look like literal poo which my inner 10-year-old was delighted by. But in a first-person game like this, outside of the weapon skins they're practically pointless. And even playing co-op I didn't give the slightest care of what my character looked like.

And that doesn't even begin to cover the $80 (!!!!) in 2 season passes on top of a still-$60 base game.

All of this aside - Gearbox (Randy Pitchford in particular) and 2K have proven to be continually more toxic and not worth supporting. Between supporting toxic exclusivity (even temporary) to a single storefront like Epic Games to overpriced DLC, they are continually proving to not be worth buying games from. Goodness knows the developers who actually made this game [www.eurogamer.net] aren't making what they deserve. I got my game with a key from a bundle I otherwise would have purchased, but knowing what I do now I would not have patronized 2K/Gearbox with a direct purchase.

As much as I hate to say it, seeing not just what became of this series and the continued exclusivity deals for Tiny TIna's Wonderlands, the Borderlands series may as well no longer exist for me. Which is a shame because nothing else quite fills this gap for me in the looter-shooter subgenre.

I'm not far in yet, but it's easy to tell that this is a very well made puzzle game.

For reference, I'm a huge fan of the Hexcells series which this obviously seems to take a lot of inspiration from. While starting out the tutorial area it seems to lean a lot closer to Minesweeper, it quickly introduces unique rules that bend the standard formula back toward Hexcells while still keeping its own unique identity.

UI is pleasant and - incredibly important in a puzzle game with unique rules like this - everything you need is easy to understand and within easy reach. New rules are also cleverly introduced without a written explanation and (at least across the tutorial area) ramp up gently enough for probably most to keep up with it. Clicking and holding with either mouse button on a completed tile shows you its area of effect, which makes things easy to keep track of as well.

It's probably a personal issue so I'm not going to nitpick it, but for some reason clicking to mark each tile isn't quite natural to me yet. I know what I need to do to complete each puzzle, but for some reason I'll infrequently mix up which mouse button is which. I'm more than willing to accept that is on me though.

That in mind, punishment for mistakes is very lenient and (IMO) quite clever; rather than requiring you to start over, using an intimidating scoreboard coaxing perfect performance, or allowing you to mindlessly click every spot to brute force your way through a puzzle, it sits somewhere in the middle of this tri-circle venn diagram. After a few mistakes, the most recent portion of what you filled in is removed. Obviously if you're determined enough to memorize the solutions (or just follow a guide) you can still do so, but it's not *as* easy as some other puzzle games and gently encourages you to actually learn its mechanics.

And - at least through the tutorial - there really is no guesswork involved as the developer promised. So that is definitely a positive as well. I'm hopeful this will keep up through the whole game.

Music isn't my cup of tea, but that's also not a negative; I generally prefer to play puzzle games like this either listening to my own music or to a podcast. If anything I guess that it's easy to ignore and turn off is a positive, but I wouldn't say that in a mean-spirited way to whomever composed it. It's just not for me, and that's alright.

I will definitely be seeing this through to the end, and I'm already hoping for Steam Workshop integration.

I played nearly 600 hours of this game on Origin before the Steam release, which is practically unheard of for me in any game. I'm also not a huge multiplayer PvP game fan, so to get so invested in this game says a lot to me.

With that last thought in mind, I'm also far from a great player. I'll have my moments and I'd say I'm pretty mediocre at this point, but I'll still get slapped down pretty hard when my MMR seems to start getting too high. Even still, I've steadily brought my K/D ratio up from a miserable .23 at launch to a current .60 with starting out season 7.

It's not perfect, and there have been issues plaguing nearly every season. Most recently this season's biggest issue is the battle pass, which was tweaked to make the grind insufferable and hard for any normal person (like me) to dream of completing. Previously there were widespread issues with hits not registering. And as with many PvP multiplayer games, there's a certain toxic element in the playerbase that can be hard to avoid; I've spent probably 95% of my time playing this game with a pre-made squad to avoid playing with randoms. Never mind the 20 tick servers they've been using since launch which may be unacceptable to those with more experience in PvP games like this.

Even with the issues this game does have, it's still a blast to play. Each character is unique and the movement is quick, snappy and just feels so good. Even the sound effects of breaking shields and knocking down opponents are incredibly satisfying. I may not be joining in on this season's battle pass without a major overhaul to minimize the excessive grind, but I'm definitely going to be putting another stack of triple-digit hours into this game going forward.

Edit 1 - A bit under 20 hours for me to unlock all of the Steam achievements, which on Origin took me some 150+ hours to accomplish. Some of these unlocked early with my carried-over Origin data, but I have still pulled off a win with 8 different legends across the 4 different hero types to feel like I "legitimately" earned it on Steam as well. I've also so far kept my season K/D ratio slightly over 1.0 after 100+ games, so I'm super excited to see just how much I've improved. Cannot recommend this game enough for a battle royale PvP game to anyone who has friends to play it with.

Edit 2 - Now approaching 250 hours in Steam (so roughly 850 hours total including Origin) and still having a mostly great time. The newest season was absolutely the most stable so far as well, even if the new map is a bit of a mixed bag.

I went in expecting a fairly casual game, and was surprised at just how delightfully and thoroughly good the game is. It's not going to redefine the genre or take any paths that haven't already been laid by previous games, but it's still an easy recommendation for a fan of action RPGs who might be looking for something a bit more laid back to spend a few evenings or a weekend on. It's a condensed, quite good experience that doesn't overstay its welcome.

The writing is clever and full of cat-themed puns, and while the main story doesn't really tread any new ground there are a couple of unexpectedly affecting side stories. The visuals are pleasant and incredibly cute, and it was easy enough to keep a consistent 4k/60 performance on my 5+ year old parts. (GTX 980ti and i5 4670k.)

Gameplay/combat reminds me a lot of old Ys games in a very good way. There are 7 magic spells you can learn - with up to 4 of them equipped at one time - though chances are that you will just settle on a few of your favorites and not mess with the others. There are different weapon types that you can equip that will have a different effect on your stats to favor defense, attack, or magic, but these don't have an effect on your actual attack patterns; your attacks never vary or grow from a standard 3-hit combo. Some enemies are magic resistant and others are physical resistant, but with enough skill you can take out anything with just your physical attacks; magic refills with successful physical attacks, so there's no option for a purely-magical "build" as far as I can tell.

And maybe it's my imagination but it felt like attacking with a rhythmic slight pause to use only the first attack in the combo felt faster and more reliable than mashing the 3-hit combo which forces a brief pause after the 3rd attack. This might sound like a negative, but it made the combat more enjoyable to me as I was careful to never engage past the 2nd hit in a combo.

I spent roughly 9 hours getting all of the achievements available in a single playthrough, and I will definitely be returning to complete the other achievements across at least 2 other "Mew Game" playthroughs that apply various buffs/debuffs.

I did purchase this game as part of a bundle, but it's an easy recommendation for a standalone purchase. Especially at its current sale price of $2.59 US. And needless to say I am looking forward to picking up the sequel as soon as I finish off a few other games in my backlog.

(Edits are purely grammatical and/or adjusting paragraphs/spacing.)

Let's just get this out of the way - yes, I've "played" this game for about 38 hours at review time. Yes, I'm likely to spend a good amount more time idly "playing" the game using an app to auto-click the mouse for me, if nothing else at this point to get more achievements. But no, I do not recommend this game to anyone.

This game is, at its essence, a pointless time sink of doing nothing except watching numbers grow exponentially larger, then periodically resetting that counter so that those numbers grow exponentially faster after a brief waiting period. There's no strategy, no story, nothing to keep you invested besides that irrational part of your brain that just likes watching numbers grow larger as enemies melt before your eyes in less than a second, when on your previous run through of that level they took 3 seconds to melt.

To be clear, this is all that I signed up for and all that I expect of it. This is not a game that rewards you for active investment; unless you want something to "play" in the background while doing anything even remotely productive (watching YouTube videos, cooking dinner, scooping your cat's litter box, checking the mail, etc.) then stay far, far away. Even seeing through to the purposefully addictive loop I still find myself looking forward to how much my numbers have grown since the last time I logged in and left the auto-clicking program to do its thing while I was off actually doing something else.

Even though I'm probably going to spend a lot more time over the next few months where Steam thinks that I'm "playing" this game, I'm not actually playing it. It's just my computer making numbers grow larger for no real reason other than to make them grow even larger, even faster, all to satisfy a compulsive addiction that I knew I was getting into. And as circular as my review is starting to sound, it doesn't even scratch the surface of this "game's" addictive, circular, compulsive feedback loop.

As a semi-active screensaver/visualizer, it's really not bad. About as good as you can expect a reactive program to be. But therein lies the problem for this to be any sort of acceptable game - the mechanics are entirely reactive.

While the background reacts quite admirably overall, "shooting" and "enemy" spawns are not tied into any rhythm that I could idenitfy.

Maybe it's my own fault for playing a relatively complex song like Porcupine Tree's "Anesthetize", which would require a more hands-on approach to have something that actually felt like it connected the music you were listening to, to the gameplay happening on screen. On the other hand, with how thoroughly familiar I am with that song and where the "good parts" should have been, I can't help but feel disappointed that it didn't seem to do anything related to what I enjoy listening to.

It's free so go ahead and give it a shot if you want some enjoyable visuals to go along with your music. Just don't expect any amount of gameplay to back it up.

This is a tough call, whether to recommend or not. I enjoyed the story, but this is not going to be a game everyone will like. But, keeping in mind its quirks and shortcomings, I think I can give this a conditional recommendation.

For one, this is a very short game. I completed the game and got all achievements in about 3 hours of play. That wasn't even enough time for all of the trading cards to drop, so I let it idle just a bit longer after finishing. I normally dislike the dollars-per-hour way of measuring a game's quality, but even at the sale price of $12 that's $4/hour for this game. It really does feel steep compared to what you get. For what it's worth, I received the game as part of a bundle so I didn't pay nearly as much for this game individually as others might.

The dollars per hour wouldn't be so bad if the game was a solid stream of enjoyment. Unfortnately, despite its short runtime there is a lot of repetition that could have been avoided with some quality of life tweaking. You'll wind up seeing the same cutscenes multiple times, with no way to skip them. Of course, this just drives home (pun intended) the point that the story in this game is quite short.

On the other hand, that gameplay repetition feeds into the story's themes of grief and loss. You go through the same events multiple times just trying anything to change history. So while it is somewhat annoying to play, it still raises the impact of the events that take place in the game. I just love it when storytelling video games use the medium to its advantage like this. Another prime example that I can compare it to would be Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons.

It's also important to note that this is not a happy, feel-good story. At best you're going to get some bittersweet moments, but keep in mind that the central theme is grieving the death of a loved one. I'm not going to spoil any of the events that happen, but there's very little break from this depressing atmosphere. If you need a story to be light and upbeat to be able to enjoy it, then this will not be the game for you. To its credit, I appreciated how the story unfolded compared to the somewhat similar story in Rime. This was much more focused and grounded in its scope.

Otherwise, the stylized graphics really are lovely to look at in motion. (Even if the eyeless character models never stop being a bit creepy.) The soundtrack is also fantastic - as you would rightly expect of Steven Wilson - though it is generally a bit understated. If you're already a fan of his music, then you've probably already heard everything that is on display here. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but don't expect anything revelatory in that regard.

Overall I'm glad I played it. As long as the positive and negativel points that I brought out sound like your kind of story-focused game, then I think you will too. More than anything, it helps to know what you're getting into.

When considering a freebie like this, the question of whether I recommend it is simply whether I think it will be worth your time. Personally, I'd have to give it a no.

The concept is fun and entertaining enough. You're a lean mean killing cleaning machine tasked with literally mopping up the aftermath of a gory shootout. (Weirdly enough you share the same voice as the guy who caused all of the carnage... Best not to think about this too hard.)

It's the execution of this concept that's a bit iffy. Tedium abounds as you pick up a plethora of severed limbs, weapons, shattered glass, and - the worst of the bunch - tiny little bullet casings. All of these go into one of the two incinerators placed in the level. You're given an infinite number of bins to carry these in, though you'll also have to contend with the physics engine which is likely to throw something out if you filled it too full. Better hope it's not a body part that goes flying, or else you'll have yet another brand new bloodstain to clean up.

Which leads to the other half of the puzzle. Blood is everywhere, which is easily mopped up. However, in a well-intentioned but rather annoying nod toward realism, your mop can only clean up so much blood before it just spreads it around further. And it barely takes any time before you need to rinse the mop off to make further progress.

What is fun and novel for the first few minutes quickly turns into tedium and boredom. By the time I finished I was wondering why I was mopping a virtual environment for non-enjoyment, when I should probably clean the actual floor in my house. Both experiences are about equally enjoyable.

At least it has two quick and easy achievements, for anyone who likes to go for those. That's about the only thing that I would recommend this barely-glorified demo for. Otherwise, I just don't feel it was worth the time to download, install, and play.

Just under 12 hours for me to complete all of the built-in puzzles, all without any nagging ads or pointless microtransactions/restrictions. Not to mention the extra puzzles available to download via the Workshop. If you want to pay for something, the "DLC" for this game gives you a few options to send some money to the developer as a "donation." Which I would say is well-earned.

This is how free games should be done.

As for the game itself, the presentation is simple but effective. Most clues are greyed out as you play, making it easier to parse what's left to solve. And there are no logic-gaps here either, all puzzles can be solved without any random guesses. I also prefer using my own soundtracks to puzzles like this, so the lack of music is not a negative in my opinion.

You've got nothing to lose by trying this for free. At worst, you'll just not like this style of puzzle and be out a few minutes of your time. At best, you'll have hours of entertainment for the price of your choosing.

This game is a perfect stress reliever for me. The music is blissfully serene, and the puzzles are both enjoyable and almost entirely logical with very few blind guesses involved.

Gameplay wise it's largely Minesweeper based infused with a dash of Picross-style logic. It may seem a little daunting at first but the rules are explained very well and it quickly becomes second nature.

If you like logic puzzles then you can't go wrong with this game, especially for the price. While there aren't technically an infinite number of puzzles (and the generated puzzles will occasionally feel same-y due to using the same logic patterns) there are more puzzles here than you could possibly play in a lifetime.

Edit Aug. 20, 2020 - I can't believe that this game that I bought so many years ago for such a low cost just received such a relatively big update. "Night Mode" looks really nice, user-created levels are a fantastic idea, and having harder generated puzzles is a welcome challenge. As if I didn't recommend this heartily enough the past few years, this update makes this game even better.