Recent reviews by Thyworm

https://youtu.be/AQN16mwNM_w

full review in the video

in short, great game with a ton of potential. Gameplay loop is already there, it works, it's good, it's fun. Game itself lacks some variety in terms of levels and enemies. Playing the game is a lot of the same stuff. Upgrading characters, crafting, looting and creating builds is a lot of fun with already so many build options.

https://youtu.be/7fOvLg_1rqc

Full review in the video.

In short, a very fun, complex, brutal and strategic game. Got my ass handed to me on several occassions and I'm not new to these sort of games. The game is well-balanced I feel, and me dying a dozen times was just inexperience and not really knowing how to position in battle, how mechanics work, etc. After a while, I got a lot better. Would recommend.

Video: https://youtu.be/1j1rcFKvnR0

Written:
Chicken Police, ladies and gentlemen. Now, you might think, why? That’s an excellent question, and I don’t really know either, but I stumbled on the trailer half a year ago, I was actually very intrigued by it, I got a review key from the devs, and I played throughout the entire game. And I loved every minute of it, every minute of the 10 hours I spent in Clawville.
Hey everyone this is Thyworm and today, I want to inform you about Chicken Police, easily one of the best indie games of the year. Enjoying this video? Consider subscribing.
So, what sort of game is Chicken Police? Well, it has chickens. And a lot of other animals. It’s a buddy-cop noir, cinematic experience, in which you need to solve a murder. But it’s so much more as well. Chicken Police was inspired by 40’s grim-noir movies, games like Grim Fandango and L.A. Noire, and animated films like Fantastic Mr. Fox. There are plenty of references in the game as well, such as the horse bartender who is referred to as BoJack. I thought about Sin City a lot, while playing this, and I’m sure other IPs come to mind as well, like HBOs True Detective.
What immediately struck me was the music and tone of the game. Old-fashioned, smooth jazz sounds play in the menu. Rain is falling in the background, a storm rises, and inside you see the smoky office of detective Santino Featherwind, a smoking, drinking, old chicken with only 121 days left to his retirement. This scene just looks so authentic, and a lot of work went into crafting the set pieces. It’s like you’re in an interactive movie, and you sort of are, as this isn’t really a game in the traditional sense. It’s more of a thrilling ride, with some minor puzzle elements, but despite that, despite this not really being something you’d normally play, it still comes highly recommended.
I’ll introduce the story a little bit, for some context, without spoiling anything that you don’t discover yourself in the first 30 minutes. Detective Featherwind, Sonny, receives a mysterious note from a famous singer and club owner, Natasha Catzenko, in which she asks for help. Someone has been threatening her and she wants it to stop. You pick up your old partner-in-crime, Marty MacChicken, with which you once formed the infamous duo the Chicken Police, until a buckshot from up close abruptly ended that relationship. Together, Sonny and Marty attempt to unravel the mystery behind this intriguing woman, and it takes them all across the city Clawville. They meet and investigate many other animals, visit tons of locations, search for clues, evidence, witnesses and do all that good old-fashioned police work.
Part of the game is about finding those clues, and if you’re paying attention like you should, since you’re a detective, most clues aren’t that hard to find. Interrogating suspects or victims is another small gameplay element which drives the plot forward, but I don’t want to overstate the interaction you’ll be having with the game and its characters. Because it’s not primarily about that.
While the gameplay elements serve its purpose, which is involving you in key decision, Chicken Police relies heavily on the story. There are story-driven games, and then there’s Chicken Police, which is a game-driven story. The script is excellent and smart, not making the many obvious animal jokes you could think of, but much rather being subtle about most of it. Apart from you playing it, perhaps, no one in the game is at all surprised everybody is an animal, living in a city, and they all can understand each other as well, for the most part. Insects, which in Chicken Police are roughly the same size as a bear, do exist, but apparently speak a different language. Those insects also live in a separate part of the city, the Hive, and they’re considered lesser civilians. Not all animals are created equal, it seems. It reminded me of District 9, which introduced a similar restricted zone for outsiders, in a very natural and believable way.
As a matter of fact, the writer and director of the game has cleverly put in many other concepts, not avoiding racism, separatism, mixed marriage and the monarchy. Without really going in-depth, the game does explore several of these topics, often on the side, and never in spite of the actual story, which is still just a great detective story. By flawlessly weaving in some other, more sensitive and more political topics, the game gains some gravitas and the world of Chicken Police becomes more authentic. The centre piece of the game revolves around crime and the detectives solving it, but by exploring the city and its inhabitants, you discover so much more about its history, its foundation and its flaws. There is some excellent world-building going on here.
Authenticity is a proper way to describe this experience, I would say. Almost the entire game is in black and white, apart from certain elements that have to do with love and hate, as the antagonist so eloquently put it. The original sound track, is, well, 100% original and written for this game. Every scene and set piece are full of details to explore and enjoy. All the characters, about 30 of them, have their own past, their own story and their own voice lines. As a matter of fact, the entire game is voice-acted by a cast of amazing voice actors. It makes the scenes come alive. In fact, let me just play you a scene from Santino, who meets Natasha for the first time in her own club.
The protagonist has this really worn-down voice, while almost drowning in self-pity, claiming to be an old drunk, close to retiring. It’s a cliché really, but very convincing nonetheless. Not so cliché is Natasha, who cleverly counters his pessimism, displaying her wits, her knowledge of people and also her mysteriousness. This depth of character is found in every animal you meet, and it doesn’t take you long to appreciate and connect with some of the main characters in the story. And without spoiling anything, the story is gripping and well worth your time. It’s a classic detective, in so many ways.
It should be clear; I’m heartily recommending this one. As some outlets would say, it’s got a little bit for everyone. Chicken Police is a fantastic game, in every sense of the word, and if you give it a shot, you’ll discover many more layers below the surface. While unravelling the plot, you’ll appreciate all the small and subtle hints, the amazing conversations and the clever gameplay elements even more. This is surely a game you will remember. 98% of the users on Steam like it as well. It’s available on Steam, for 20 euros.

https://youtu.be/V40-YXFCRyo

This is simply an amazing game.

review found over here: https://youtu.be/xTRuo9DeTAA

bougth both expansions now as a new player, after trying this for free for a while. It's such an amazing game. Would recommend those who enjoy good gunplay and decent storytelling.

video review:
https://youtu.be/2MeNFD_CQhU

written review:
Cat Quest 2, ladies and gentlemen, is just pawsome. And if you don’t like these kind of silly cat-jokes, then this isn’t the game for you.
Hey everyone this is Thyworm and today, I want to talk a bit about Cat Quest 2. Believe it or not, but this was one of the games I was genuinely looking forward to playing when I learned it was in the making. I’m not kidding, I requested a review key like 2 months ago and was really excited I got one, so thanks to the devs for that. I played Cat Quest, the original game, developed by the Gentlebros, and I felt it was such a breath of fresh air. I loved every minute of its silly jokes, the combat, the quest lines, the amazing art work, the beautiful music. It was an absolute joy to play, and I did, I played it quite a bit, finished the campaign and I realized how few games like these still exist. It reminded me a lot of old console games, where 2D adventure games were commonplace, games like the original Secret of Mana, which I thought was amazing.
Cat Quest took me back to that era, to a time where games were much more simple, but still very enjoyable. And don’t get me wrong here, I’ve played the entire campaign of Gears 5 and loved every minute of it, and it shows how far gaming has come, but on the other side a certain amount of simplicity and sense of humor goes a long way as well, which is what Cat Quest proved. It was overall just a very enjoyable game and currently, it’s successor, Cat Quest 2 released.
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And I’ll make this review very simple. If you loved Cat Quest, you will love this game. Almost nothing has changed. The main thing they added is a dog companion, which is nicely interwoven with the story, it allows you to play local coop, and if you’re playing solo you can swap between characters, playing either as the cat or as the dog. An AI takes over the other one, and the AI is pretty decent. It doesn’t die all the time, it does some damage, if you give it magic spells, it uses those spells. I was actually kind of impressed with the AI. Apart from your new dog, everything else is pretty much the same.
For those who don’t know Cat Quest, let me explain a little bit what this game is about.
It’s about you, a cat, who needs to save the kingdom. You can move around the world map, which is filled with towns, dungeons, castles, little secrets and people or signposts, providing side quests. You level up to become stronger, you find new weapons and magic in the dungeons, you can equip your protagonists with more and more stuff and using all these things, you need to stop 2 evil rulers from plunging the land into chaos. You know, like cats and dogs usually do.
What makes this game so attractive to me is the fact that it’s just fun to play. The combat is simple in nature, but can still be very challenging. Side quests are short, but usually well written, they’re stupid, sure, but once again, very enjoyable to do and you really want to complete a few here and there, or you will be underleveled for the main content. Exploration is a big thing as well and you’ll be rewarded for scouring the map. Treasures are all over the place, and there’s even some world bosses that you can find, if you go out of your way to deserted places.
The artwork and music are very well implemented too. I think this title has some awesome graphics and it looks super polished. The music really supplements the experience and changes based on various locations. It’s usually cheerful, but from time to time becomes downright gloomy, when the end of the workd is near. The game includes tons of references to other games, done in a very tasteful way, I found. It offers a lot of variety in content and places to visit. There’s an entire new island, the dog island, with its own dog jokes, populated mainly by dogs and the occasional stray cat, where you’ll have tons of new adventures.
For only 15 euros, this game is definitely worth the money. The campaign lasts around 6 hours and that’s 6 hours you’ll spend with a smile on your face, happy that games like these still exist.

just a great game which allows for many different builds, has a lot of content updates inspired by the community, and for an Early Access title it's very playable. It has its bugs, it has some performance issues too, but it's definitely a game worth checking out.

Video Review:
https://youtu.be/VjuOZXIme5s

Written Review:
I’ve been playing this new collectible card game called Mythgard, which just entered open beta on Steam. And there is just so much to do in this game.

Hey everyone, this is Thyworm and today, I want to bring you my first impressions after playing Mythgard for a couple of hours.
Mythgard is a collectable card game, developed and published by Rhino Games. The plan was to release this game a lot sooner, but Rhino Games decided to polish it more to a state that they felt confident about presenting it to the general audience. That has been a good decision, because as a card game that is currently in beta, it definitely feels very complete already.
I’m a big fan Hearthstone, I won’t pretend to know a lot about Magic, but I will still attempt to give an overview on how this game plays and what it has to offer.

Mythgard has some very deep game mechanics and deck building possibilities. Just like in Magic, you can construct decks with different colors, which then work well together. To build a deck, you need cards, of course. At the start of the game, you’re given some cards already. By playing the tutorial and the first act of the campaign, you earn a lot more cards. You can also earn coins to buy packs of cards, by doing the campaign, by doing dailies and by doing additional challenges. Or you can of course spend money on in-game currency, mithril, to buy cards. It’s a free to play game, so that monetization seems fair, AND so far I’m not getting the impression that I’m being ripped off or forced into buying cards. I’ve been granted a ton of cards actually, and I’m definitely not complaining.

Another great feature are community decks. These are decks provided by the community that you can choose to play around with. Each couple of days, these decks rotate, but the nice thing is that they’re free to use and I don’t think you need to own all the cards to play this specific deck. I am not 100% sure, but assuming that’s the case, it’s a great feature. If not, it’s still pretty good, because it shows you some creative deck building from fellow players, but then you need to get or buy some cards to make those decks work.

Then, a little bit about the in-game mechanics.

At the start, there is no mulligan. You do however start with quite a few cards. Still, I occasionally suffered from some bad RNG which didn’t allow me to play any card for 2 turns, which felt pretty bad. But ye, RNG and card Games, I get it.

Every turn, you can burn a card, which grants you a crystal of that cards colour and let’s say a mana point. These crystals can be used to play cards of that color, and the mana is just your general resource, like in Hearthstone. This already adds a layer of depth to the game.

Another interesting mechanic are enchantments. These are patches of land, basically, that can be placed on the battlefield and provide buffs or debuffs to units that are on them or on adjacent tiles. I created a deck with quite a few of these and I littered the playing field, creating basically a defensive wall with my own units on it as well. These are a lot of fun to mess around with.
There are hero powers, like you have in Hearthstone, which usually cost 2 resources. You can draw a card for example, or heal a unit. Some of the more advanced mechanics include Paths, which are like small quests which give temporary bonuses when you complete them. For example, I chose a path which allowed me to revive my own dead units after I gathered enough souls.
And then of course you have your standard battlefield mechanics, which come in various versions, but are usually relatable to other card gamers. Things like battle cry, rush, divine shield, taunt all exist in this game as well, but they gave them different names. Even though I consider myself a reasonably experienced collectible card game player, it took me a lot of hours to get used to all the different battle mechanics and the ways the units interact with each other, and I have to admit I still haven’t got it figured out 100%. Every now and then I think I’ve set up a decent defense for example, and then somehow, I’ve missed that the enemy unit can pass defences, because it has this special ability. Those surprises are still happening from time to time, but that’s not a bad thing. It is more a testament to the depth of this game. There really is a lot to focus on and I think a lot of Magic and Hearthstone players will enjoy this game quite a bit, if it catches their attention.

There is much more to say about this, but I’m going to leave the gameplay for now and talk a bit about the different game modes. Because bloody hell, Mythgard offers a ton of game modes.

First, there is a campaign. It serves as a tutorial, mostly, at least at the start. By playing through it, you receive a bunch of new cards, some coins to buy packs, you unlock other game modes and you get a general feel for the game. I thought in terms of a tutorial, it’s well explained. In terms of a story, it’s just this weird post-apocalyptic setting, with cringy delivery and some pretty bad voice acting in an overall extremely incoherent story. You should also check out the Twtitter account of Mythgard, which is super weird too. They’re clearly putting effort into the whole lore and all, but I’m just not really convinced. You might be, however. One thing I did like, was the retro synthesizer music throughout the game. It fits the scene perfectly and doesn’t get boring.
After completing the campaign, you unlock various other game modes.

Melee is a 2v2 constructed game mode. Ranked is your regular ranked constructed game mode, with a ladder. In Puzzle mode, you need to solve various combat situations by using the right strategies. Casual is a constructed PvP as well, but without a ladder system, ideal to practice your newly built decks against real opponents. There’s an arena mode as well, which works just like Arena in Hearthstone, where you’ll battle opponents for multiple rounds until you either win all rounds, or until you are defeated a couple of times. The PvE section also really doesn’t disappoint, with Brawl setting you up against a random AI to play a few matches, or with the Gauntlet, which is a series of enemies you need to defeat in order to achieve victory.

I haven’t played all of these game modes yet, but the ones I did play, mainly the PvE ones, worked really well. They also provide you with specific cards, with some additional coins to buy packs, so they’re worth doing at least once.

Let’s finish with a little bit about the in-game economy. The game really is generous when it comes to cards, coins and other claimable rewards. You can earn up to 12000 coins per day, which equals 10 packs or 60 cards. You gain levels, unlocking more packs and coins and cards. There are specific daily challenges for additional coins. There is a weekly chest, which requires 5 victories or a successful gauntlet run. To top it off, there are various achievements too. Oh, and on a side note, it has Twitch integration as well. I mean, it’s quite impressive ladies and gentlemen, the amount of stuff you can do. Add to this over 400 unique cards spread over 6 deck colors and this game will entertain you for many, many hours I feel.

If you like card games, jump in. Have a look around. Get through the cringy campaign and start building some decks. The visuals and look may or may not appeal to you, but the depth in this game is undeniable and to me a big selling point. Even though the game is free to play.

This was Thyworm, subscribe for more game reviews and first impressions, thanks for watching and making it to the end. Bye bye

Video Review:
https://youtu.be/9W2cimNxmQc

Written Review:
Pixel-art, hack n slash, roguelite, do you need more reasons to get into a game like this? Also, it’s just a great game.
Hey everyone, this is Thyworm and today I want to bring you my review for Children of Morta. Subscribe to the channel for more indie game reviews!

Children of Morta is an indie game developed by Dead Mage and published by 11 bit Studios, which also published Frostpunk and This War of Mine, to name a few. Children of Morta is a very stylish combination of pixel art, hack n slash, roguelite & atmospheric scenes. You play as the entire Bergson Family in an attempt to stop the corruption that has plagued mount Morta. And you'll soon figure out that the Bergsons are a truly lovely bunch of individuals, each with their own characteristics, and each with their own deadly fighting style.
There's John, the father, literally and figuratively the protector of the family. Using sword and shield to defeat his foes, John is well suited for close combat and can take a beating. His eldest daughter Linda chose a different path. She's an archer, fragile, but lethal from afar. Using the bow and her skills, like a volley of arrows, she rains down hell on her enemies. Then there's Mark, the monk, the martial arts fighter. He's quick as lightning, he has some great gap closers and you're creating a dance of death across the screen in no time. He's definitely one of the hardest champions to pull off, because of somewhat limited defensive capabilities, but it feels good to smash monsters nonetheless. Another son is Kevin, and we need to talk about Kevin too. He's a dangerous kid, with 2 handcrafted knives by his uncle, Kevin is a short distance melee fighter. The more enemies you hit, the faster your attack speed becomes and the more damage you do. Kevin has secondary AOE abilities as well. Just like Mark, Kevin is a bit of a glass cannon and needs some hours put into him to be played well. Once you get the hang of it however, he's literally unstoppable. The fifth character is Joey, the strongest of the bunch, wielding a 2-hander that decimates the fiendish spawns in the underground dungeons. He can take a beating, he can dish out tons of damage, and he's brutally effective with his weapon. The last character is Lucy, the youngest, who just completed her training as a fire mage. Her attacks take some time to wind up, but once she gets going, she's like a turret. She can summon whirlwinds as well. Her damage has one drawback, because she has to be stationary to cast and attack. During those moments, she is very vulnerable. She's the weakest in terms of health and armor, but her damage output and ranged attacks give her some significant punching power.

So what is this family supposed to do? Well, The Bergsons are protectors of Mount Morta. Bergson in the Nordic and at least Dutch language means 'son of the mountain', and the mountain is in trouble. A corruption, it's purple, mostly, has spread and it's up to the family members to combat this plague. You do this by opening various portals to underground dungeons, fighting hordes of enemies, collecting buffs and beat the bosses at every stage. And if you want to see me die a lot, playing this game, I’m occasionally streaming it, right here on youtube. Just look for planned events.

Along the way, you're blessed or cursed by RNG. You collect gemstones which can open chests or which can be spent at a merchant. Chests and merchants provide various items, buffs, and runes. Items can increase stats, damage, provide new skills, distract enemies using totems, summon dragons, you name it. There are tons of items and most of these items are extremely useful. There are buffs as well, by interacting with shrines. It's your typical action rpg buff roster, with increased movement speed, increased armor, increased xp, damage, etc. Finally, there are runes, which imbue your attacks and modify them. Linda can shoot more than one arrow, for example. Johns swordfall can hit more enemies. Marks primary attacks regenerate health, these kinds of things. All of this is RNG, however, and sometimes the success of your run is determined by fate, because some combinations of items turn out to be pretty suicidal, while others work really well. Finding out these combinations, and being lucky enough to find them, is what makes this game so fun. The dungeons are also procedurally generated, which is a good thing, because you will be playing the same stages over and over, because you suck, probably.
The roguelite element is, well, you dying an awful lot. It's half of the game really, but every time you die, you will have gathered resources and items that help you progress the plot and the characters. Your main resource is called Morv, it looks very much like gold, and can be spent on upgrades. You have magical upgrades in the form of the book of Rea, which for example gives you a passive ability that provides more Morv from enemies, or a passive that increases the duration of buffs. There's also your uncles’ workshop, where you can increase your attack damage, armor, crit chance and evasion, for example. Even though you're dying a lot, you always gather some Morv and are able this way to make your characters stronger buying upgrades.

Another way to make the Bergsons better is by levelling up. As you kill enemies and complete quests, you receive experience. Gain enough, and you level up, and each level grants you a skill point. You can invest those skill points in the simple, but effective skill tree. A nice touch about this skill system are the family perks they offer. Every few skill levels, you unlock a family trait, a passive buff that the entire family receives. This incentivizes you to level up all the family members at least to some extent, because these family trait buffs really add up and you can unlock multiple buffs per character. Another reason to play multiple heroes is the Corruption Fatigue. If any of the protagonists spend too long in the dungeons, they get fatigued by the Corruption. As a result, their maximum health is decreased by a certain %, and at some point they become unplayable. You need to let this character rest for a bit, and thus play someone else. It's a neat mechanism that forces you to experiment with at least a few characters and prevent you from just building a single powerhouse. This whole game is about family after all, and working together is an essential part.

And what is more fun that playing this co-op? Well, I don’t know, because co-op is currently only implemented locally, and I’m living alone with friends really not playing games in real life. But soon, co-op will get an online version, and that’s going to add to the family feeling even more. It’s probably a lot of fun playing this with a friend, and who knows, it might be a bit easier as well, depending on how the scaling works. Follow the news regarding this game on my twitter, @thyworm, I’ll keep you posted.
The storyline in Children of Morta is well told by this deep voiceover. You learn about the characters, their relationships, their strengths and weaknesses. The characters themselves don't say anything, there is no voice acting apart from the narrator, but it's not missed. The art style and the music immerse you in this game, they make you feel right at home as if you were in the Bergsons living room with them. It's a pretty, very entertaining game, it's already a commercial success and it deserves every bit of praise. So if you’re looking for an action RPG which hooks you on both a narrative and gameplay level, this might be the game for you. I’m at least enjoying this game a lot.

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