Recent reviews by Logan

ISLANDERS is a casual city-building game developed by Grizzly Games, Coatsink, and Stage Clear Studios while being published by Coatsink.

Gameplay
Islanders is all about scoring points by strategically placing buildings on your procedurally generated islands to achieve highest score you can. It's pretty simple!
Every new session you get a random island with option of selecting a starting building pack, each providing thematically similar buildings in limited numbers. Use these to obtain enough points to be able to collect another building pack, place these, rinse and repeat until you gather sufficient amount of points to move onto next random island!

To obtain points you select a building from inventory and place it on the map, in this case island. Each building has certain sphere surrounding it, showing off the distance at which it will earn or lose points from existing buildings or other environmental structures. Every building has structures that are compatible and give it extra points when in the sphere, and incompatible, losing points when placed near them. To make it easier on math side, game shows you potential points you can get when placing a building on selected area but before actually putting it, as placing anything on the map means it will remain there permanently. Careful placement and forward planning are important to maximize the score you get!
Once you obtained enough points, you can travel to next randomly generated island and start building it up from the scratch.

Game is over if you have placed all buildings you had in your inventory and didn't collect enough points for another pack to get more structures, or if you don't have enough points to progress onto next island. Then it's back to the start! Worth mentioning you cannot reload the game as every placement you make automatically saves your game and there is no way to revert back to previous states.

Playtime, replayability and other modes
Impossible to determine how long your playtime will be. Can be 5 minutes, can be 50 hours.

Game is set on constant attempts at getting highest score so I would say that does count as replayability.

Islanders has second mode called "Sandbox Mode" where you get to roughly select how your dream island should look like to afterwards build it up anyway and with anything you desire. Name of a mode checks out!

Impressions
Islanders is a tricky little beast. It's a really good game however due to its nature, it takes certain conditions and mindset to fully enjoy it. Otherwise you might end up in a uphill-downhill scenario on "enjoyment scale" like I did, which is described down below.

I can safely say that first impressions were great. Something that is a massive positive from the start is audiovisual side of the game, low-poly minimalistic artstyle with vibrant colour palette looks fantastic, very pleasing for an eye. And you mix that with relaxing soundtrack that you can enjoy or just turn off and play some of your favourite songs or podcasts perhaps, depending on you. Audiovisual aspect never got old for me and by far was my favourite part of the game.

Islanders is quite unique in the city-builder genre. There is no resource gathering, traffic management, technology research, no sidequests or optional objectives. You have a building, you place it, you get the points. Repeat the process until you are done with a session or lose and start all over again. Safe to say simplicity and minimalism it offers is not for everyone. Those who seek more variety, to simply put it, will get bored. Game balances between relaxing atmosphere and strategical approach to building placement quite well, while randomness coming from what structures you get and on what island you will place them adds necessary element to spice things up!
First hours were enjoyable yet painful and very "game-over", as I was learning mechanics and buildings, while top of enjoyment hill came roughly at 15-20 hours mark. At that time I discovered all buildings and learned basics on how to optimize my runs for more points!

Unfortunately afterwards is where it went into downhill territory for me and where my whole issue with recommendation chimes in. Past those 20ish hours game starts to fall off. With nothing new to discover and basics of strategy played out, game wears out and starts, or at least started for me, to be boring, with its key aspect of simplicity turning into double-edged sword. You place same buildings as before in roughly same learned patterns/configurations for maximum points. You start to yearn for something different to do, as randomness of game wears off, especially if you play Islanders in longer sessions.

Something that turned out to be a negative for me is layout of islands. It's always a single island while game could utilize multiple, smaller sized islands for ultimate challenges, with player needing to piece around a whole archipelago of medium/small sized land for you to connect around. Plus game doesn't have that many layouts surprisingly, in my playtime I encountered same islands even 3 or 4 times but simply with different colour palette and very minor changes, extra tree or rock here or there.
Also was not a fan of island transitioning. Points collected on previous island don't stack up. No matter if you get 10 or 10000 points on an island, when you move to next island your start is always same, you don't get any extra packs or "easier" start for all the points grind, only higher score for leaderboard. Which, goes without saying, is riddled with cheaters anyway so.

To make that whole gibberish I wrote make sense: Islanders is good, but to fully enjoy it you should treat it as a smaller sidegame in between big titles. Something to play for 30-40 minutes as a way to relax, either with some of your favourite tunes or with chilling soundtrack game offers.
You should not do what I did, which is grinding it for hour or even slightly longer daily and without playing anything else to break the routine. I assume that is a main reason why my personal experience later on was just...boring, mediocre, even if I had fun in those 20 hours but that is still...less than half of my actual playtime. Game itself can be a nice gateway into more city-builder titles which have more mechanics in them.

Final words and conclusion
If you will enjoy this game you might be interested in a news that a sequel was recently announced! (As of when I'm posting this review.) It seems to be improving some aspects I was complaining about so I might have to check it out in the future...

Relaxing audio, beautiful visuals and minimalism provided in gameplay makes ISLANDERS a great choice for short, casual city-building sessions, but long runs can break the cozy feel it provides.

Feel free to check out my curator page for more reviews!

"Oh thank goodness I'd like to report a poltergeist! They've come into my house, they shaved all my cats, they look better in my mittens!"

Oxenfree is a graphic adventure game developed and published by Night School Studio.

Story
In Oxenfree you play as Alex- teenage girl that together with her friend and new step brother, spends weekend on a local island. While big party that was awaiting them turns out to be a flop, group soon discovers mysterious cave and accidentally triggers supernatural events. This forces them to dive deep into islands history so they can uncover its secrets and fix the situation.

Gameplay
Oxenfree is played from 2.5D perspective and focused on exploring fictional Edwards Island to stop evil paranormal forces our group has unleashed. Talk about a "whoops" situation. Navigate multiple areas of the island and complete given tasks in order to progress further in the story.
Gameplay is build around "walk and talk" mechanic. As you walk around, explore and progress, there is (almost) always a second character with you, leading to conversations. So at the same time as you walk, you can select what Alex should say from speech bubbles that appear, but if you will take too long to choose said bubbles will disappear leaving a surprisingly loud silence. Some of the dialogue choices impact your relationship with other characters, so be sure to think for a moment about your next words.

Outside of that, rest of the game is focused on Alex's handheld radio. It can be used to solve occasional puzzles, unlock doors, find items and so on. Anything you can interact with has a small circle next to them so you can find things easier.

Don't worry about screwing up, Oxenfree doesn't have any "gameover" possibility.

To wrap this up, it's worth mentioning this title has mouse-only controls, if some evil supernatural forces took over your keyboard and you cannot use it.

Playtime and replayability
It took me 4-5 hours to complete the game for the first time. Without going into spoilers, let's just say title is pretty much designed for more than a single playthrough, so it's easy to justify second or even third run if one is interested, for different dialogue choices and outcomes.

Impressions
Oxenfree turned out to be a surprisingly great title. I say that as I came into it with no expectations, "friend of a friend" recommendation that I was on board with after noticing "supernatural thriller" being used to describe it. Said thriller part definitely pleased me. Constant creepy threat from our paranormal friends mixed really well with atmosphere of the lonely, covered by night island. Presentation is one of the major success points, combining both dark and analog elements together with brighter, digital sections, same goes towards soundtrack, digital music is mashed with vintage analog tapes for a really fun outcome. Audiovisually, game is fantastic.

But it still comes with second side, of being something closer to teen drama/coming-of-age thing, as our characters with different personalities, interests and look at current situation still clash, laugh, debate and hope for different outcomes in a rather "live or die" scenario. But ain't that a charm of teenagers, always rebellious, trying to prove their point right even if death stares in their eyes, and...supernatural-events-triggery? Helps that game has a really well-written roster of characters and even a decent amount of humour considering the situation, so even if you are not someone who is digging that type of a thing, you should still enjoy Oxenfree.

Now if you don't like that aspect and rather slowpaced gameplay mashed together...you might have a problem. Because game is not the most action packed title ever. Most of the puzzles is very simple, island doesn't have many side activities, unless you really want to go off the rails and dig into nooks and cranies for secret audio messages or weird posters (that may I quickly add are a great addition to creepy supernatural atmosphere of the game). However whole "walk and talk" mechanic is a money shot. Great way to skip having cutscenes and have player engaged in slow walks across the island! Really well done. Plus it helps game is not lenghty, so it doesn't wear you out.

I, not really someone who is into teen dramas, found it engaging and perfectly mashed with paranormal aspects. Perhaps a bit more meat, aka. gameplay variety, could suffice and get bit more playtime squeezed out of Oxenfree, outside of second playthrough strategy it has going, but I still highly recommend what I played. Somewhat surprising mixture that works, especially impressive as this was a debut game from Night School Studios! Talk about great opening.

Final words and conclusion
You can grab Soundtrack DLC to further support the developers!

Supernatural thriller meets teen drama with surprisingly great outcome. With fantastic audiovisual side, well-written roster of characters and engaging mystery, Oxenfree is a safe recommendation.

Feel free to check out my curator page for more reviews!

"Some idiot is running around the asylum dressed like a bat. I know, crazy! Stop him before he gets someone hurt, really, it's for his own good."

Batman: Arkham Asylum is an action-adventure game developed by Rocksteady Studios and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.

Story
In Batman: Arkham Asylum you play as Caped Crusader himself, who just caught his archnemesis Joker during an assault on Gotham City Hall. He escorts The Clown to Arkham Asylum, secure facility for the criminally insane located off the coast of Gotham. Turns out Clown Prince planned it all out, and soon takes over the asylum to start unveiling his evil plan, with only Batman being able to stop him.

Gameplay
Explore, investigate, and fight on iconic island where Arkham Asylum resides, as Batman will utilize all his skills, wits and tools to stop villians plans! First, few linear sections where you get familiar with controls, camera and general gameplay. One of the first things you will get to experience is combat! Enjoy a beautiful relationship between Batman's fists and thugs faces in quick brawler combat, focusing on 3 main moves: attack, stun and counter. Chain these and avoid getting hit to create combinations that make Batman more agile and faster. Additionally you can use gadgets to your advantage, but be on constant alert as goons will be gearing up as game is progressing, forcing you to adapt and on the go combine multiple different moves. Goes without saying, if you will take too much damage, Batman's lights will go out and villians will laugh at him! (And you!) Literally.

Sometimes however, you will have an upper hand. With bad guys on a lookout for any Bat shade, but without knowledge where it will come from, you can utilize environment in many ways, set up traps or simply find a high advantage spot above to observe, and once the timing comes, takedown enemies in a stealthy fashion. Outnumbered you constantly have to be careful, as tides can quickly turn and you may have to resort to escape on high elevation to avoid getting shot or stabbed, but less active enemies in the area means more stress in those remaining on it, as paranoia and desperation start to kick in.

It wouldn't be a game about "World's Greatest Detective" without some investigation work. "Detective Vision" helps you gather information about the world- highlights interactive objects, informs about enemies, allies and their status, or is used to solve puzzles and follow footprints, tasks required to progress.
Some areas are not available from the start, as you will have to reach certain story milestones to unlock new tools, so don't be shy when it comes to revisiting locations!
No matter if you are inside or outside, each area has additional side tasks you can do.
Solve riddles left by Riddler, collect interview tapes, find messages left by Arkham Asylum's founder and more!

Both combat and exploration earn you experience points, gather enough to earn skill points which can be used to unlock health upgrades, new gadgets or combat moves.

Playtime, replayability and other modes
It takes roughly 10 hours to complete the game, depending on how much you will explore.
It's short, but with rather simple narrative and an option to explore Arkham post-story, I wouldn't call it a highly replayable title.
Outside of main campaign there is Challenge Mode! Beat up thugs with sweet combos in Combat Challenges or eliminate them stealthy using specific takedowns in Predator Challenges to rack up points and earn stars!

Impressions
I won't end up in titular facility by stating that Batman: Arkham Asylum is a fantastic game. Slow opening allows you to start your journey by appreciating great visuals and top-notch voice acting, before throwing in the meat of the game- combat. My praises go towards it, even though first few encounters were quite sloppy, or felt for me at least, perhaps lack of experience with brawlers took the toll. Nonetheless after a while, once you get experience and flow kicks in, it's an absolute treat. Attacks feel very satisfying, with simple core yet with variety of gadgets and enemies to keep it interesting across whole game and agile moveset with smooth inputs makes it a surprisingly well paced and fluid pleasure, only getting better as with more bones smashed Batman gets faster and more physics-defying as combat goes. To that bread you add some nice butter, as when you are not directly fighting, stealth encounters where you strike fear into enemies from the shadows are a massive pleasure, with fantastic utilization of environment and gadgets, most importantly by great AI.
While both are great, taking some time off to explore is just as enjoyable. Partialy because watching a changing landscape reeking of horror as situation gets worse was exciting, but also pointed out what Batman is fighting against. Variety of side collectibles that allows you to read a bit about iconic (and lesser known) DC characters is fun to obtain and enough of a reason to seek them out in order to spend additional time on a lovely Arkham Island but fortunately with respect for your time. Oh the gliding and striking down upon criminals, truly a joy. Challenge Mode was...alright, for someone who just wants to punch thugs or stealthy take them down without looking at a score, definitely a solid addition to extend your time with Arkham Asylum.

So the game has fantastic combat, great stealth, intriguing storyline, wonderful audiovisual side, strong roster of characters, pretty much everything you could ask for. Is there something that bothered me? I would say bosses are only mixed/bad aspect, some are very plain and uncreative, just more of same repetitive thing over and over, while others do try something a bit more different but ultimately felt flat due to being drawn out.
In close, and I mean really close spaces, controlling Batman was a bit annoying but it's nothing that ultimately made my experience worse.
As someone who is...waaay past his superhero phase-craze, I still had a great time with the game. Sometimes you just want to glide around, punch bad guys in the face and wear tight kevlar suits I suppose.

Final words and conclusion
GOTY Edition comes with additional 4 Challenge Maps which...hey, more content is more content.

Light up that batsignal and beat up thugs with a smile, as Batman: Arkham Asylum with superb combat, great audiovisuals, fantastic world to explore and nice additional mode is a real treat.

Feel free to check out my curator page for more reviews!

"Colors, like features, follow the changes of the emotions."

GRIS is a platform-adventure game developed by Nomada Studio and published by Devolver Digital.

Story
In GRIS you play as titular Gris, young girl that finds herself lost after suffering a loss of important person in her life. Full of hope, she embarks on a journey across memories to grow up and learn how to deal with aftermath of recent tragedy.

Gameplay
GRIS is a 2D title where you control Gris across her voyage that will take you through multiple areas, with central tower serving as a hub.
It comes with a very simple gameplay core, as most of it is build on platformer sections. You will make your way through locations by collecting star-looking lights that create paths, by utilizing abilities to pass multiple types of obstacles and with simple puzzle every once in a while thrown into the mix. At the start you are only able to jump, but with each area you visit, you unlock new power that expands upon the gameplay and therefore platformic sections, letting you glide or swim! Each area comes with some unique aspect to stand out from one another, whether it is a need to escort a little character or strong winds that are capable of pushing you around, but ultimately gameplay is quite simple.
On your journey you can find side collectibles, secret items called mementos hidden behind slightly more challenging platformic sections!

Playtime and replayability
GRIS takes from 2 to 4 hours to complete depending on your pace and desire to seek side collectibles.
You can give it another go to appreciate visuals and to collect all mementos!

Impressions
From first minutes you spend in the game you can tell what GRIS strikes for: Emotions. Quick and brutal opening to set up the story followed up by first area and reaching the hub shows off what game will be about. Gameplay wise game is...decent, but nothing special. Quite slow paced, with platforming sections not providing much of a challenge though some variety if offers from design of areas is appreciated, while puzzles are very simple. Nonetheless it is not even close to being a must play platformer. I would say the best word to sum gameplay up is "melancholic" to fit into rest of the game.

And that rest of the game is where GRIS shines. In an amazing, minimalistic way may I add. Not a word of dialogue in the game but environmental storytelling does all the carrying so those who will pay even minimal attention to game will know what it's about. Not even in a subtle way, addition (or rediscovery) of colours in the areas, unlocking abilities to explore further sections, first few minutes of the game as mentioned before, the "hub area", it's all perfectly crafted to create narrative of GRIS. I personally believe it's one of the most beautiful games out there if we talk purely about visuals. Usage of watercolours with Art Nouveau style is a great decision, as each area with it's different environment looks absolutely marvelous. To that you have great soundtrack composed by Berlinist that adds up to often calm, melancholic feel of the game, but also provides few different tunes when themes or pace of the game change.

Perhaps nowadays as few good years have passed since release, game might not be considered as good as back then due to increased amount of similar, emotional titles, but I disagree. I believe the simplicity of gameplay, themes and narrative it provides together with wonderful audiovisual side make it still for a perfect game to play for everyone that aged like finest wine, whether you seek something emotional, beautiful, or perhaps a gateway towards more "artistic" titles that gaming industry is full off! Goes without saying I adore this game and I recommend it highly.

Final words and conclusion
You can buy Soundtrack DLC to further support developers!

GRIS is an absolute marvel of a game. Beautiful, minimalistic, emotional tale of rediscovering yourself and finding hope after a tragic loss. Cannot recommend it enough.

Feel free to check out my curator page for more reviews!

"The stained carpets and peeling wallpaper exuded a stench of stale coffee and abandoned dreams."

Duck Detective: The Secret Salami is a mystery adventure game developed and published by Happy Broccoli Games.

Story
In Duck Detective: The Secret Salami you play as titular private investigator Eugene McQuacklin, who gets a case of solving the salami theft from local office. But as he soon will find out, there is more to it than it meets the eye...

Gameplay
It doesn't take a detective to figure out core gameplay is all about solving a meaty mystery by using wits, charm, and duck-related puns! With isometric camera you control our hero as he investigates, questions, and deducts to solve puzzles and progress in the case.

At the start you will get a very simple tutorial to let you get familiar with game mechanics before you dust off the fedora. First off, interracting! Whenever you find an item you can interract with, you can get a closer look and using a trusty magnifying glass find details that can help you out later. Same applies to characters you encounter across the game, and it's worth to chat with them later on about items you may have collected or about discovered information, as they might shed some new light on your investigation.

All the information you gathered is collected in Eugene's notebook. Here you will check possible suspects and what you know about them, important items collected and investigated, plus de-duck-tion menu. To progress in Duck Detective you have to solve puzzles in the form of phrasal templates, where you select correct words to fill up the gaps. Those you can get from previously mentioned investigation work. Then just pick all correct ones and voila, our detective is one step closer to cracking, or quacking? The case! Because templates often contain multiple slots to fill in, to give you some sort of help game mentions how many chosen words you picked are correct, but which are the correct ones you have to guess on your own.

If at any point you will get lost or stuck because finding justice ain't a swim in the pond, game provides help in form of hints to put you back on the right track!

Playtime and replayability
It takes 2-3 hours to complete this quacking case. It's a short and linear title, so it's more of a "one-and-done" type of a game you enjoy on a chilly day (or night).

Impressions
Duck Detective is a fantastic little game. I must admit it had surprising amount of head scratchers where I got stuck for a brief moment, but game does provide helpful hints in such case, making investigations a well made and enjoyable part of the game. There is great humour in animal related puns, mainly related to ducks due obvious main protagonist reasons that makes backtracking between very few areas of the game to get more clues fun. Charming artstyle, especially paper cutout characters is just lovely! As per tradition, smooth jazz soundtrack plays along your detective journey, and fantastic voice acting really shines, it has just the right amount of overexaggeration to balance the thin line between seriousness of the matter and lighthearted tone of the game, possibly my favourite aspect of them all.

Unfortunately game is quite short, so once you fully get into it, it ends, leaving you craving more of Duck Detective. Though I say cheap price and quality of what game has to offer does recompensate for said "issue". Ultimately I had short but wonderful time with Duck Detective, and I cannot recommend it enough!

Final words and conclusion
You can buy Soundtrack DLC to further support the developers!

A parody of hardboiled detective done right. Duck Detective is charming, funny and entertaining in all the right ways even if short in lenght. Worth every bread!

Feel free to check out my curator page for more reviews!

"Next time I'm bringing gasoline and matches. A bullet will suffice just this time, though."

Intravenous is an indie top-down shooter stealth game developed and published by Explosive Squat Games.

Story
In Intravenous you play as Steve Robbins - a simple man set out for revenge with a mysterious ally on his side, after his brother gets killed by low-life drug junkies. His quest however, will snowball into something much bigger than he first anticipated...

Gameplay
Hotline Miami and Splinter Cell have a baby- Intravenous!
Played from top down camera perspective, you make your way through levels while completing simple objectives along the way, with quick rest at a hideout in between. But to spice it up there is an army of low life scums, mercenaries and thugs that will try to prevent you from reaching your goals. So the question is- quiet way or loud way?

But first! A quick prologue.
Afterwards, you select your loadout, either from a hideout or before the mission on a loadout screen. You can equip up to 2 weapons, armor, and 3 gadgets. Arsenal of weapons is limited, and can be expanded by collecting unique weapons found across the levels. Here you notice importance of what you choose. Weapons beside interesting descriptions come in different types, from shotguns through pistols to rifles, all with different accuracy, firemodes, range, spread, noise they make, weight, ammo type and more! There are also non-lethal options for interested in pacifist way. Same applies to gadgets, as one can take a tazer or throwing knives for stealth work or a grenade and mine for explosive surprise. Plus 3 different armor options, varying in how much protection they provide for expense of movement speed and noise made. This applies to any gadget or weapon, so the more you carry, the heavier you are, slowing you down and making more noise. It's your choice on what to pick, you can always take nothing and let fists do the talking!

Once you are suited up, it's time to head out and decide how you want to approach incoming level.
Stealth! With light and sound meters on a HUD, you can check how detected (or rather, not) you are. Don't make a lot of noise by controlling your movement speed, stick to the shadows and use nightvision, crawl when needed, create darkness by shooting (or turning off) light sources, avoid security cameras, track patrols and strike on unaware enemies when timing is right across maze-like areas game offers. Quick neck snap or a longer choke to keep them alive will clean up the area a bit, as long as you move the body out of the main path, or find a cozy dumpster to get rid of them without anyone noticing. Grab a bottle and throw it to distract anyone on your way, utilize ventilation systems, lockpick doors, climb in through windows or walls for extra element of surprise. In short there is plenty of ways to make your way through levels undetected, and decent amount of tools to help you out with it. Enemies in Intravenous are very aware however, so don't get cocky. They will notice lights turned off in rooms they been in a moment ago, doors open when they shouldn't, will check on suspicious noise heard nearby or blood trails, so before you decide to use your weapons, think twice. Once it starts to smell fishy, they will alert their buddies, resulting in whole area slowly and surely descending into chaos as everyone is looking for you. It goes without saying, if enemies detect you, bullets start flying.

With stealth thrown out of the window, it's time to get noisy. Or it was your plan all along, who am I to say.
Combat! Those weapons you have on you will be put to good use, as you are outnumbered and alone. Goal is rather simple: Kill them before they kill you. Utilize levels structure and navigate around environment to ambush and wipe thugs off one by one, or find a cozy spot, select an automatic firemode in your gun and spray down groups of thugs unfortunate enough to end up in front of your weapon. Intravenous doesn't screw around, it takes few shots to kill you, bit more with armor. A single guy gunning down with submachinegun is more than enough to pop you, and a single shotgun buck from upclose will always send you into checkpoint realm. Plus as you progress, carefree thugs who might be an easy picking, turn into professional mercenaries that are a smart bunch, often clearing out areas in patterns and walking in groups. Better carry extra medkits, or find bandages, but be warned at some point wounds will be too rough to heal. Combat puts a lot of emphasis on movement- faster movement speed and moving itself ruins your accuracy. If you run out of ammo, scavenge or loot corpses for those combat spoils that will keep you rampage streak rolling.

No matter if you are sneaking through or blasting your way, be sure to every once in a while find a spot to save your game, as you can in a second lose all that precious progress. You have a limited amount of saves per level, so keep that in mind.

Playtime, replayability and other modes
It took me 7 hours to complete the game on first playthrough. With game changing modifiers, multiple playstyles available and workshop, Intravenous gives plenty of reasons to stick around for longer.
Speaking of, thanks to Steam Workshop you can extend playtime thanks to levels developed by other players, while game modifiers change in a small or significant way the game is played, from different weapons to mechanics such as actual currency system you need to collect to supply yourself, so don't be shy and try them out!

Impressions
Intravenous is a great little title, even if brutal in difficulty. Goes without saying gameplay here takes the spotlight. Tight gunplay, tough enemies, almost zero room for mistakes and variety of gadgets make for very intense combat, while non-lethal options, light/noise meters and very aware security when it comes to patrolling make stealth a nervous yet satisfying way to spend your evening. On top of that you have fun loadout mechanic, solid level design to accomplice hybrid gameplay, fantastic modifiers and great soundtrack, whether you are sneaking around or blasting your way through, tracks will adapt to get you in the right mood. Both playstyles provide a very enjoyable experience that combined create effective, fun stealth-action mashup.

It has to be said that top down camera has "double edged sword" moments as you can get shot outside of your field of view in messy combat encounters, and it can make for tough stealth calculations when shadow you thought is enough to cover you wasn't, but otherwise such perspective doesn't ruin your experience.
Without any doubt I can state that story is barebones and a very simple revenge quest that never really hooked me up. Characters come and go, dialogue flows and my interest remained the same, that is almost none. If you seek decent writing, you might want to look somewhere else. As I said before, gameplay here is king, and is good enough for me to recommend Intravenous with no hesitation, if you won't mind the difficulty that comes with it.

Final words and conclusion
Be sure to get Soundtrack DLC to further support the developers!

Tight gunplay in intense combat encounters or teeth-clenching stealth with great mechanics, Intravenous provides best of both worlds in this brutal stealth-action hybrid. Recommended!

Feel free to check out my curator page for more reviews!

"Auto racing began 5 minutes after the second car was built."

Circuit Superstars is a racing video game developed and published by Original Fire Games!

Grand Prix
In main Single Player mode of the game called "Grand Prix" you will venture into the diverse, dangerous and always fast world of motorsport. Compete in tournaments and show off your skill in vehicles from all categories of racing to earn victories and prove you got what it takes to be a circuit superstar!

Gameplay
Circuit Superstars, which should come as no surprise, has circuit racing as the core gameplay, though an interesting aspect is perspective as game is played from top-down isometric view, standing out from most racing games in that department. Race, improve, win, repeat!

Before you drive off onto a track however, you have to select a tournament or race to participate in, vehicle if such option is possible and livery. Those who know a thing or two about motorsports will notice that cars and tracks are "inspired" by real life. In main "Grand Prix" mode there are only tournaments and every driver has same vehicle. Formula of events is similar to actual racing weekends, first you have a Qualifying session where on a single hot lap you fight for best possible time to determine your position on the grid. (And you can get a point for Pole Position!) Afterwards you get ready for a race, reach highest place possible to score as many points as you can, with main goal being victory and glory that comes with it. Have most points after 5 races (that many each Tournament has in Grand Prix mode) to win whole thing and unlock further tournaments!

Racing itself is a blend of intense and short lenght arcade style of races where cars will bump one another every once in a while, with realistic driving physics as our vehicle behaves authentically on different surfaces, a penalty system, tyre wear, fuel consumption and vehicle damage simulation! All aspects are tracked by gauges on the screen. So keep an eye on those meters while racing! In longer races pit stop is a must, so the game allows for some strategic maneuvers thanks to unique pitstop system where we have full control over the car in the pit lane, including option of going out earlier because who needs a fuel tank or all tyres swapped?

All actions during a race and qualifying earn you experience points, gathering 2000 of them grants you a level up and unlocks new cosmetic items, such as patterns or liveries.

Speaking of, customization! In Garage you can change visually how you and your car look, with our driver having option of picking different helmet and suit, plus emotes (how our character looks idle in main menu and how he is celebrating a podium), while vehicles come with different liveries and patterns available.

Playtime, replayability, other modes
It took me 9 hours to make through every tournament once.

Of course you can give them a spin on other difficulties and if game will click with you, additional modes will have you spend solid amount of hours in improving and enjoying the game further!

Like a proper racing game should, Circuit Superstars comes with a selection of additional gamemodes!
If you need some training, check out Practice mode where you pick a track and car to...well, practice.
As name Free Play suggests, here you make races and/or whole tournaments on your own rules, with AI or friends to compete!
In Time Trial, you get a designated car and track, do your best and get fastest time to climb up the ranking, with trials changing weekly!
And there is Online component where you can drive against up to 11 other drivers, in randomized single races. While game has a Crossplay feature, bear in mind you might have a hard time finding other drivers.

Impressions
While first hour, perhaps two, were...not quite fun, with me fighting tooth and nail against weakest AI to keep my precious podiums as I was adjusting to the game- after few extra hours under the belt Circuit Superstar became what devs wanted, a tough yet enjoyable simcade racer, featuring intense fight for wins where a single wrong move can decide whole race due to their short lenght. Something that I personally really like. The need to be precise, practice, and fight for every tenth of a second cut from a lap until you fully immerse with every lap driven. It's worth mentioning game doesn't have any sort of "rubberbanding", most of the time it pushes hard from start to finish so you better don't blink or run out of breath while fighting on every corner, although AI overall has balancing issues. Unique camera view and manual pistop mechanic is spicing up the game right from the start, with solid selection of tracks and vehicles to drive to keep your interest. Soundtrack while limited to main menu, will put you right in the mood with groovy tracks inspired by different time eras. Customization is simple and gives just enough for every player to spend few minutes on making sure his car looks unique.
It doesn't take a genius to point out that additional modes are a massive positive, further letting you enjoy the game, giving you a reason to stick around and making it a very good choice for party/couch title pick, if you seek something to play with (or against) friends every once in a while and have fun!

But not all is sunshine and rainbows on Circuit Superstars paddock. Unfortunately AI is the biggest problem. It's "adaptive", meaning awful. After first Grand Prix, where I was fighting hard for best possible position, next up was a "sunday church drive" type of an experience, as I without any problems pulled away from my opponents. But few races later, the teethclenching experience came out again. Calling it unbalanced, is putting it lightly. Plus game has a rather funny issue with pitstops, where AI especially on lower difficulties, can pit twice in a row, giving you a free victory in the process. Why? I don't know!
What personally annoyed me is a fact the previously mentioned "tyre wear, fuel consumption and vehicle damage simulation!" is nothing more than a gimmick so you can waste a moment on pitting. Ultimately there is no actual managing it, because AI always gives 100% and so you do have to too, giving zero room to, for example, lift-and-coast in order to save fuel. Sure you can try it, but you will save a mere percent or two that won't change race outcome while AI will gain much, much more charging behind you. There is only one tyre compound so you don't even have any option to toy around with different tyre options. Game also doesn't have night racing nor rain to spice up the races, though I have to say- detail of rubber left on most optimal raceline, making it darker as race goes on, and dirt tracks being cleaner on optimal line thanks to drivers sweeping it is very cool.

Ultimately, I still had an intense yet fun time with the game. It's...good, but few tweaks here, small addition there and it could elevate into something great, even fantastic. I hope rumours of devs working on a sequel are true! For now though, I can recommend this, mainly for fans of motorsports or those who seek a racing game to play on a couch with buddies, as previously stated. One has to also remember this is a small game made my only few people, so I also didn't expect something grand. A solid first title with room for improvement.

Final words and conclusion
If you, like me, got curious about a game due to Top Gear DLC then jokes on us! Because said DLC is no longer available. You have to dive into the vast ocean of internet to find a key if interested, and if there are any left to snatch.

A fun simcade title, Circuit Superstars plays nicely thanks to short, intense racing mixed with realistic driving physics, though overall motorsport aspects need more polish. Recommended nonetheless!

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"Don't be sad that I'm gone- be amazed that any of us had a chance of being here."

What Remains of Edith Finch is a first-person exploration video game developed by Giant Sparrow and published by Annapurna Interactive.

Story
In What Remains of Edith Finch you play as titular Edith Finch, a 17 year old last surviving member of her family, returning to ancestral home after 7 years to reexplore and uncover mysterious past to learn what caused the collapse of Finch household.

Gameplay
What Remains is a narrative-focused adventure game, where you explore Finch house through series of semi-linear locations. Walk around and interact with different items such as pictures to hear Edith's commentary, discover shortcuts to navigate the house with ease and find items to trigger a sequence related to certain family relative. These provide a variety of perspective, genre or gameplay mechanics to stand out and spice up core gameplay focused on...well, walking. Exploration too! But mostly walking.

Playtime and replayability
It took me 2 hours to complete the game, with extra hour spend on cleaning up achievements. It's a "quick one evening trip" type of a game, with your favourite stories being able to be replayed simply through menu.

Impressions
What Remains of Edith Finch is absolutely fantastic. Strongest point of it lies within implementation of magical realism into the stories of Edith family members, not only to add doubt about the events told across them for a player, but also to spice up the gameplay which quite often can puts away people from playing such games. Said element brings out the best out of presentation and makes each story a unique experience. You learn more about members of the family and their fates, story pieces start to slowly allign as mystery mist covering them disappears until finally blooming into bittersweat ending to top it off. It's a touching and brilliant story well put together, focusing on family, life, loss and hope, even though it does have a weaker moment or two.

If premise will grab you from the start, you will enjoy it to the finish, if not then it's artistic vision and storytelling might feel a bit cheap and lacking interactivity, while usual "walking sim" slower paced gameplay won't keep your interest either. I personally found it great from both aspects quite frankly, and a safe recommendation for those who seek a short title for an emotional evening, or look for a starting game to get into "narrative-focused, slower paced aka. walking sim" genre! So, what remains of Edith Finch? A great game, apparently.

Final words and conclusion
Be sure to grab Soundtrack DLC to further support the developers!

Crème de la crème of magical realism, What Remains of Edith Finch provides a touching, sad and beautiful story about love, with decent as for a genre it represents gameplay. Highly recommended!

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"I've got the perfect plan..."

Henry Stickmin Collection is a series of point-and-click choose your own adventure-games developed by PuffballsUnited and published by Innersloth.

Story
Henry Stickmin Collection is an epic saga spanning across 6 games, telling a story of titular Henry Stickmin, a stickman who starts off the series as a small crimimal hoping for quick cash, but as his ventures go on, he gets involved with large criminal organization and ends up being a part of global conspiracy.

First 5 games from said series were originally released as free to play browser based games on Stickpage and Newgrounds, with final, 6th chapter titled "Complete the Mission" developed for this particular collection/release!

Gameplay
Henry Stickmin is all about pointing and clicking to decide the fate of our hero. You can safely ditch the keyboard for this one, mouse only will do!
You get a selection of choices to move forward, and you select it by, yes you guessed it, pointing and clicking on an option! These go two ways, either you fail and retry, or you make progress to next choice. Simple? Simple.
Game provides occasionally a Quick Time Event where you have to select an option in a limited amount of time, or to click at certain direction to not fail.

Outside of main clicking, game has side clicking as well. You can click on characters you encounter to add them to your acts and later on read their bios, or you can click on environment to discover (or attempt to) many secrets and references hidden across the games!

Playtime and replayability
Completing everything HSC had to offer took me 5 hours, beating only games without any character/achievement hunt will probably take you an hour, perhaps two.
Replayability is key here, afterall you just have to check all the fails game provided for your enjoyment, no?

Pros and cons
Henry Stickmin is a short and simple game that will make you laugh with all the hilarious fails awaiting to be discovered, and with decent story following all those storylines you can choose from. Easy controls, decent soundtrack, even visually it ain't shabby, especially final chapter (previous ones also got remastered for this release to look better!). Bios, previously mentioned fails and ton of references you can find make it for a nice game to replay.
Bear in mind games have their age so some references might be tad older and perhaps slightly forgotten by sands of time.

Only issue is drop in performance that happens when you play the game in fullscreen mode, but it's not something horrible.

Final words and conclusion
Whole Collection is a nice way to keep Flash games nostalgia alive and I hope to see more flash games appear on other platforms.

Failure never felt better with The Henry Stickmin Collection! Humour and references galore in classic flash games with new entry that I can safely recommended.

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"All roads lead deeper into the forest."

Darkwood is a survival horror video game developed and published by Acid Wizard Studio

Story
Darkwood is set in late 1980's Poland, where strange forest devoured large amount of area, turning it into nightmare. Those who were trapped inside are affected by strange plague that kills or transforms survivors into monsters, while still sane seek a way out of the green hell.

You play as a mysterious stranger who wakes up in the middle of the forest after brutal events that took place last night, including unknown accident that left him wounded and brutal interrogation by his "saviour". With same goal as everyone else, he sets out to escape, whether forest will like it or not.

Gameplay
Before you dive into the main part of the game, it's worth to play Prologue to learn basic mechanics, controls and tid bits of story. Important considering actual game is very harsh and won't bother holding your hand.

Darkwood plays from top-down perspective, providing a procedurally generated yet with handcrafted locations semi-open world to navigate and day/night cycle. Your main goal is to escape, but let's say it has multiple smaller steps, unique characters and monstrous creatures in between blocking your path, so learning how to survive is a priority. During the day you get out of your hideout to navigate mysterious, twisted forest, while at sunset you crawl back, barricade the windows and hope to see the daylight.

Everyday as you wake up refreshed in a hideout, your little somewhat-safe haven among the green pastures of hell, you get to prepare yourself for another venture into darkwood. Most important elements inside are kitchen and workshop. Collect meat and different shrooms, cook them up and level up to gain new abilities that will help you survive. To make it spicy, you have to also pick a negative aspect alongside it! Workshop provides a place to stash items and craft tools, materials or weapons, with option to upgrade it to unlock more items to craft. Here you come to rather obvious conclusion quite quickly: in Darkwood, everything you find is important, and learning how to use it is a key to success.

Once you are all stocked up, with plan in your mind, it is time for a trip! Procedurally generated map means layout will be different everytime you start a new game, but important story places will always appear. Explore the forest to discover creepy ruins, wrecked machines, abandoned places, some locked and some open, all with resources to loot. With limited inventory, better be sure to know what to grab and what to get another time. It all sounds pretty simple, but habitats of darkwood won't make it such. Wild dogs, cultists, swamp monsters, spidermans (not the fun type), and way more monstrous abominations hunger for your flesh. Protect yourself with variety of melee weapons (and firearms), all coming with different range, size, and attacks, just like your fellow forest neighbours who want you dead! Keep them in nice condition as game features durability, and improve them at workshop. There are also extra worthy items, from source of light to traps and bandages, worthy of keeping for encounters with habitats of darkwood. Don't fret however. Death will take you back to your safehouse and only for a small toll of some items in the inventory, so keep best stuff at the hotbar to not lose it. You can also venture into the area you died to recover your goods! (Death outcome varies on difficulty)
Worth mentioning it ain't all gloomy. You do have a journal which will keep most important information, featuring key items, notes, and a selfmade map that updates as you explore!

Once your vision cone starts to turn orange, it means sun goes down and so does your chance of living. Go back to a hideout, use materials to barricade, set up traps, store items and better fuel up most important aspect: generator. It powers up lights, and lights grant better vision and a bit of comfort among the sea of darkness. At time goes past 8 and night starts, your goal is simple: survive. And who knows what will forest bring out at night to get rid of you, living and not...

After every night, no matter how it ended, you get a visit from local Trader with certain amount of goods ready to be exchanged, and a nice timefreeze to consider your next moves without pressure. Reputation is a currency of Darkwood, as every item comes with certain value of it. You also get it for surviving the nights so keeping your guts inside throughtout them is more than recommended! Use reputation to obtain materials, ammunition or parts and keep eyes open as during exploration you might find other traders too.

Playtime and replayability
It took me 16 hours to beat the game, but playtime is flexible due to nature of Darkwood, so it is difficult to point out just how long it might take you to wrap it up.
You can give forest trip another go to select different choices throughout your journey and see how they will impact your game, or attempt to ramp up the difficulty to raise the stakes even higher. Try your hand with limited number of lives or simply go hardcore with permadeath.

Pros and cons
Darkwood provides a lot of survival horror goodness and quite nicely balances it out to offer one terrific experience that won't hold back, offering you a little taste of what is to come in Prologue and turning it up in actual game. Gameplay might not bring anything new to the genre, but it is still very enjoyable. Expect first few hours to be painful as you tend to learn how world operates, what do and what not quite. But once you get aclimated, it all starts to click and grow. Exploration feels natural as you desire to investigate mysterious, creepy areas and scavenge for loot, with brutal, intense combat that can surprise you with encounters at every step of the way. Fantastic design of enemies with decent chunk of them inspired by slavic folklore, utilization of top down perspective, terrific atmosphere, outstanding soundtrack and unforgiving combat make horror aspects of Darkwood deliver on every front, as navigating seemingly abandoned locations with limited resources and field of view, reeking of death and lore is scary, intense yet addictive. Game doesn't come with jumpscares, every once in a while enemy will ambush you to check if you are aware but most of the time it's environment with audiovisual design that does the heavy lifting.

Darkwood is a game that respects you and your desire to experience something tad more fresh from usual survival horror mixture, it will be painful in few moments, will take a moment to get used to, you might get frustrated with possible lack of progress but it only makes game better, it enchances the painful part of hellish experience forest is supposed to bring.

Final words and conclusion
Be sure to get Artwork and Soundtrack DLC to support develo...what's that? Indefinite hiatus? 5 to 10 years? ...oh...alright....ahem.

Slavic folklore meets lovecraftian atmosphere with great gameplay on top! Darkwood is one fantastic survival horror game, where fight among forest terrors is an absolute treat.

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