Recent reviews by Skyler

I have never played this video game. I will pretend I know what I am talking about. Ask me anything.

I am going to pee my pants. In more related news the game has been unplayable for years.

My previous review was just "don't" but I decided that while you shouldn't play the game I should say a little more than that.

The game is fun when it lets you play it but they seek to get in the way of every aspect of the game to get you to buy, buy, buy. This is nothing more than a medium to drive sales. It is possibly the most greedy game on Steam, hell Overwatch is monetized better than this.

Player First Games' ironic name aside they learned nothing from the first time. Communication is non-existent and the patches are confusing and inconsequential. Their response to criticism has been excuses if they even address anything at all. Which is exactly what happened in the BETA. I don't want this game to die again, but it deserves too.

I want to start this by saying I actually don't recommend you play this game but don't want to harm the developer with a thumbs down. This is a passion project for what seems to be a single individual over 7 years and it is still only in its' early stages. It is not remotely close to a complete game. This is still years out from being 'good' it is only just playable now. Opening it up to start getting feedback from the super fans. But what we have now is just the bones.

Those bones however give enough of a description to say this is the most ambitious and innovative city builder on the market thus far. In a few years this could be incredibly potent. Just at the moment it is too hallow and far too tedious.

It's pretty funny.

It is pretty good. I am a big fan of Terraria having played over 1,000 hours of it across two accounts and am also a big fan of city/colony builders having played dozens of them. I hate to compare it like this but this is very much a top down Terraria combined with Rimworld. What is great about this game as a city builder is that you are not pushed forward by some distant goal set at the end of the technology tree but by your character's gear progression and the next boss. You are expanding your colony's abilities to meet these goals. I never thought I wanted the NPCs in Terraria to do more than sit around and sell stuff until I had 10 human shaped mules organizing my chests for me. This is also as far as I am aware one of the only city builders that can be played in multiplayer.

The game is easily worth the 10 dollars and especially the 5 I played for it. Its' a good deal for what you are getting from what appears to be a passionate developer. As far as I am aware the game is done but in Early Access only to expand what is available. Which as much as I like the game it is needed. I wouldn't expect it to but Terraria has much more content after a decade of updates obviously. But this game ends up having about as much content as pre-hardmode Terraria.

Open radio
"Hey I think heard something outside the ship one second"
I turned away from the computer and saw only teeth and was never heard from again.

This game is kind of bad.

If you are exposed to Sonic fans in any amount when on the topic of this game you'd leave that conversation under the impression that this is a bad game or at best a meh game. There are plenty of 3D platformers much better than anything with the word "Sonic" on the box but that being said this is a fun game. Which is all I ask for in a platformer.

There are problems typical of any Sonic game:
The story is as always abysmal and simplistic which wouldn't be a problem expect it is a major focus. Fortunately you can skip every single cutscene and just focus on playing the game which is what I would recommend.
Level design is rather unfocused. There are lots of good ideas in here but they rarely flesh them out completely. There are also a lot of gimmicks like the return of the wisps. This lack of focus ultimately made a lot of levels feel functional but nothing more up until the very end. Which make much better use of Sonic's abilities.
It is also short which is also not abnormal for a linear Sonic Game and I don't really feel compelled immediately to play most of the levels again besides for the Chaos Emeralds.

One thing that bugs me about the game is how much of its' existence is owed to its' predecessors. Once again you romp through green hills, destroying robots and freeing animals from capsules. Which is particularly disappointing because the game could have been so new and fresh if it didn't do that. The way the game plays is completely unique from just about every other platformer let alone Sonic games and if they tried to give it a unique setting (and ditch the whole tube level thing) it would have been a lot better. A super linear Mario-ified Sonic as a one off could have been really good and there are elements of that in the game. Sonic controls really well and there is an element of polish not seen in many 3D Sonic games.

While I enjoyed the game all the way through I couldn't help but feel it was holding back and right as it was really applying its' ideas in a meaningful way. It ended. What is sad to me about this game is not that it is good or bad but rather just how much better it could have been.

It is a very good game and probably worth buying. It is the monetization of the game I have a problem with. The game has 10 small DLC packs that all cost at least 13 USD, some more. Small as in they add little and with a limited focus. This probably wouldn't be a problem but becomes a problem with Cities Skylines without DLC and even with mods is rather poorly featured. Nearly every aspect of the game feels underdeveloped and plain. As if the game was created only to be the skeleton of platform to sell DLC rather than a great game with DLC adding on to it. It feels very much like an ice cream cone, with no ice cream. Paradox will spoon feed you ice cream one small flavor at a time but expects you to pay a premium for that ice cream. The entire collection of DLC often goes on sale but even at 50% off it is tough to recommend and it is only going to get more expensive.

It is a great game but has no peers in terms of price. Other studios now deliever the quantity and quality of content comparable to these DLC packs for free. Which adds value to the purchase. Cities Skylines does not add value but adds cost to aquire more than the bare minimum. Paradox is not obligated to give anything for free but 133 dollars and counting while ON SALE is stupid no matter which way you cut the cake.