Recent reviews by TurdleShell

Gloomwood promotes itself as an immersive sim. To me that means being creative in your playthrough. I want to think “is that possible?” and then be happy when it is. But this game simply doesn’t deliver on that front.
Don’t get me wrong. I do believe this game is worth playing for other reasons. It’s fun for one; The level design has plenty of little mini stories and puzzles in it. There’s generally enough variety in enemy types to keep things interesting. The atmosphere is fantastic!
These are what kept me going throughout my playthrough. I want to know more about where I am and what’s going on in this place. I want to explore different paths around the same places and get all the little secrets. I wanted to sneak around and backstab a bunch of bad guys. And I did! Way too much so!
That is where things actually started falling a little flat for me. Despite how damn good the vibes are, the gameplay itself doesn’t really hold up right now. To me it generally felt like I had 3 options. A: I sneak around, distract and backstab everyone. B: I blast down everyone with whichever gun I have at my disposal. Or C: A mix of both. Which really just means I failed to sneak and stab, then shotgun blast the guy I agro’d and hide again in order to continue sneaking. AND THAT’S IT! That’s the game!
I want more options. I want to be able to knock enemies unconscious! (imagine a full pacifist run). I want more and smaller gadgets to place in their paths and kill them with it. I want to chuck a pickaxe at someone and actually have it do damage and stick in them as they chase me. Imagine combining the two things I just mentioned and how I could use that. That’s the kind of gameplay I want in an immersive sim like this.
There were moments in this game where I genuinely thought I was being led to do something cool and creative that ultimately led nowhere. Case in point: (minor spoiler) In Hightown there’s a spot where you’re directly above someone on a wooden platform with some nice looking bricks next to you. Well, 1+1=2 right? Throw a brick on his head!.. WRONG! It doesn’t kill them and a knockout system doesn’t exist. Instead, it does minor damage and agro’s 2 of them nearby! Come on man!
What limited options I do get that aren’t “shoot everything” felt even further limited by the somewhat lacking loot in the latter half of the game so far. What mostly irked me is that the store only sells a select few item types. The thing I wanted to use at some point, a baton bolt for the flare pistol, I could not use. I ran out completely and there was no option to purchase them. Hell I literally spent an hour backtracking across the entire game(!) to try and find some to no avail.
I could go on and on about minor inconveniences and all. But you get the idea. This isn’t as much of an immersive sim as it is a survival horror game.
I will say it once more though! Despite my personal feelings about the imsim part, it’s a fun game! You’re guaranteed to get dragged along by the vibes thanks to the music, sound and level design. Some moments are really set up perfectly to tense you up good. I was so scared at the start of the Hive level! Play this game for that reason if anything.

Also this doesn’t fit anywhere in my review but the first person animations are really good. I love the little flick you give the Flashbomb when you first get it :P

certified bangers and great movement is all i need for me to like this game and it succeeded

took my sweet time on this game and enjoyed every bit of it!

I played this game with controller the whole way through. I think that made the combat more difficult and interesting compared to playing with mouse and keyboard. Aiming properly at your enemies takes a bit longer and all that.

World is cool. Like, very cool. They did a really good job at that Tokyo vibe with both the big highways and super tiny alleyways between tall buildings. Topped off with all the leftover clothes and accessories from the people that disappeared.
I also liked the little things. Like how at the shrines you can pray with a 100 or 500 yen coin and get rewards. That's a nice detail. Being able to still move a little while collecting souls is also very well done. I wouldn't have been arsed collecting that many souls if i had to stand still for all of them.

The main quest is pretty short, all things considered. I'd recommend you do the main quest missions that unlock more side quests and then complete those side quests before moving on. That way you get both properly upgraded for the bigger fights and the main quest gets paced out a bit.

I actually liked the side quests more than the main quest. Each one of them having to do with a different kind of folklore or gossip made it very interesting. Albeit more in a story-type of way. The combat was ever the same in all missions that involved it. The ones that didn't really involve any combat were nice, even funny sometimes.

Play this game for the main and side quests. Then don't bother moving on past that. Wasting hours on searching for all the collectables isn't gonna make this game more enjoyable.

good fun and long playtime! would recommend no matter what the price may be.
the animation seems like mocap mostly and its kinda cringe to look at at first imo. but after a while i got used to it.

DO NOT BUY THIS GAME. THEY WANT MONEY AND YOU EITHER FALL FOR IT AND PAY UP, OR GIVE UP SOONER THAN LATER. TRUST ME ON THIS

good fun. cheesable in some levels. water levels suck except for the last one.

It's surprising to me how i can be winning a game and yet feel so extremely frustrated and angry. Even if you're doing well it never really feels like that because minigames are either A: excessively difficult, B: really unclear or C: weirdly way too easy. (think Rolly Ragdolls where it's entirely possible to get so far ahead that you're not even in screen anymore, by simply holding D. no other movement necessary)
It might all be on purpose and i could have completely misunderstood what this game is about. But for a party game it doesnt give that many laughs. In fact, of the 3 games that i played which stretched just about 1.5-2 hours. All of them left both me and my friends in a salty mood after like 30 minutes.

Play this if you like to complain or just generally want to get angry at something. Dont play this if you want something like mario party.

Bought this game on sale for 80 cents and it already far surpassed the value in fun!
I quickly made a server to play with my friends and we've spent over 4 hours already!
Even at the official price its definitely worth it!
Use the Hand Mortar for funny ragdoll physics!