Recent reviews by Amaranthium

Don't know jack about Warhammer but I enjoyed this. Sadly, it's only a short demo/proof-of-concept rather than a full game. Good, satisfying sound design and great visuals (I assume these were inherited from the main Boltgun game). You type phrases that range from Latin words, "purge the unclean", to more humorous stuff like "paint your models".

It would have been nice to have a bonus round where if you type your character's lines as he is saying them, you get a health or damage boost depending on your score.

It is free, but the price you pay is the distracting, ad-riddled menu. Like your average gacha mobile game, constantly trying to get you to throw money at it.

But if you can get past that, there's a wide variety of FPS-related exercises. Very straightforward, if a bit punishing at times. Then again, if you only play one or a few shooters, it might be better to just keep playing them to git gud.

Tl;dr some good ideas, but too reliant on RNG to be consistently enjoyable. I was expecting something like Typer Shark, but this is not that. Most of the campaign plays like Scrabble on steroids, which won't be fun for everyone. It's not a bad purchase at a discount I suppose.

Now, this thumbs down does not mean that this game should be avoided like the plague. It just wasn't for me. I normally enjoy typing/word games, but put Scrabble on a timer and you take the fun out of it. This is most noticeable in campaign missions, which give you seven letters and a timer as you type words that contain at least three of those letters. I'm not sure if this design succeeds in pushing you to type faster. It felt more like my brain was scrambling to turn random assortments of letters into as many words as I possibly could. "Wait, is that even a real word? Whatever, I got points for it." The game as a whole wasn't a great learning experience, in my opinion. (Also, it refused to accept "cack" for some reason.)

Speaking of learning experience, will this help EFL speakers get used to the mire of chaos that is English spelling? I doubt it. Common words in English can get quite long, but you only encounter >7-letter words in some modes. Endless typing is not as complex as in Typer Shark. It does not reward you for not making typos, and the difficulty setting only changes the time limit (not the word length).

A lot of the campaign ends up depending on RNG, as you restart in hopes of getting a less unfortunate set of letters. Hangman was just... no. Who even plays hangman without any hints whatsoever? It's a guessing game based on pure luck, with you wasting your first few guesses on the most common vowels in your chosen language. It doesn't actually test your vocabulary or typing skills. Treasure chests could be better designed, too. Unless you're able to guess extremely obscure words like puberal, linguae, and maculas, you're gonna need Tyche on your side.

As for the positives, I liked the art direction. Some of the boss fights felt gimmicky, but others were interesting. The cease and desist letter for Typhon was funny, I guess. At first I thought the difficulty spike from normal to hard was too drastic, but things got easier as I levelled up and bought better equipment. Sound design was not unique or satisfying like in Typer Shark, but it wasn't bad by any means.

I think the game could have done more with the theme, like make a challenge where you guess a word that has Greek roots or type as many heroes and monsters of Greek mythology as you can think of. It would also have been nice to have a word log feature that notifies you when you discover a new word in gameplay.

Tl;dr watch a romance unfold through the eyes of someone who acts like a middle schooler having their first crush while simultaneously being on NG+, with all the (over)confidence of knowing how their story ends. An intriguing and largely light-hearted read with a happy ending, though not without a few darker moments.

The amount of work that has gone into the character writing is outstanding. The trio of love interests, as well as Buffalo Seer themself, are allowed to have both flaws and endearing moments, even when you're not romancing them. While in conflict at first, the ordeal they endure together allows them to become closer in a way that feels genuine. Even Kea, who irritated me at first, eventually grew on me.

If a romantic read is what you're looking for, this story might not be the right fit. Amorous interactions are on the tamer side, from hand-holding, naive declarations of love, to pet names. The romance was not spicy or full of drama, with most of the tension arising from misunderstandings and the mission at hand. However, if you like stories of a ragtag bunch becoming friends, it succeeds in delivering on that premise.

The prose (including dialogue and descriptions) was competently written. It's not particularly vivid or poetic, but it does have a keen eye for minute details in character interactions that would usually go unnoticed in other stories. I noticed only a few typos, many of them towards the end. There's a strong tendency of showing over telling when it comes to the cast and plot. You are thrown into the narrative right away with little in the way of setups or exposition dumps. It expects you to draw conclusions yourself and not have to be explicitly told everything, which I personally appreciated.

The music was pleasant to listen to, though there aren't many tracks so the experience felt repetitive after a time. I think it could have been used more sparingly to emphasise emotional beats instead of playing all the time. The art is also mostly good, though you'll notice that backgrounds are not rendered with the same amount of detail as the characters. It would've been nice to get some artwork for the gadabout since I don't recall getting a detailed description about it. Note about the sprites: the palms of darker-skinned characters should be lighter than the rest of their body.

Regarding the worldbuilding, using Normal/Abnormal as terms was rather heavy-handed. It felt a little generic dystopian YA to me. Why wouldn't the Abnormals have their own endonym? These concepts do have some interesting developments, with each having their own culture and norms. Still, I would have liked to see the subject be treated with more gravitas, given the many parallels to real-world issues that the treatment of Abnormals draws from.

I was actually a little sad about the story ending where it did; I would have liked to see the reunion/wedding of Buffalo Seer and their partner. Also, there was no closure about whether the police manages to catch whoever put the bounty on January's head. Who was it, and what do they want? Felicity said he would be taken to someplace in Ellon. The only other time that place was mentioned was to point out that January's father came from there. That was too significant a plot point to not wrap up properly, in my opinion.

Plays like Temple Run and looks like one of those visualisation options you can toggle in Windows media player. You don't have to be good at the game to have fun. It's an interesting way to enjoy your music, and the 2000s graphics has surprisingly aged well. My only complaint is that sometimes it crashes while selecting your character.

> Asian-inspired tropical region with Apostrophe Names to sound """exotic"""
> has a city named Braxton

Actual tl;dr: not much intrigue, much of the ink is for indulgent telling instead of showing. Excessive railroading, not enough tension and conflict to make narrative milestones feel earned. It does not take itself seriously at great cost to the plot and characters.

The pacing and overly straightforward narrative do a disservice to the spy role-playing experience. Everyone except the villain instantly warms to you. When you soul-bond with your magic animal, they somehow do not discover that your goal is to infiltrate the mage faction. There's no need to worry about saying or doing the wrong thing because none of your friends suspect you of anything. The plot would probably have stayed the same if you were just an emissary or recruit.

A lot of the story involves less subterfuge or difficult trials and more... tourist getaway. Trying out foods, chatting with locals, reading books, surfing, etc. Shopping takes a whole chapter, but the PC's efforts to win favour and gain influence are over in a handful of paragraphs. The mages act mysterious about one temple, but the actual "test" is making a magic painting. The plot moves in Chapter Six when you spy on Garrack and his co-conspirators, who conveniently forget to use a muffling spell to make sure they aren't heard. Instead of making my character look like a master of espionage, they look like they just got lucky.

Next, you fight enemies and overthrow a government in Chapter Seven. I was desperate for excitement by this point, but in retrospect, it feels like the monkey's paw curled. We've been hearing about how the mages have all these incredible powers to help people and maintain multiverse harmony... But when it matters, they do something so cartoonishly evil that it shatters this entire perception. It plays like a Call of Duty mission, where you can treat a grenade launcher like a new toy while another choice mentions the horrifying number of casualties. It's a bizarre tonal dissonance.

You enter an evil magic building containing human experiments (imprisoned mages). After mowing down agents, Teo and Kai decide to bomb the building to complete the mission. The problem is, nearly all of the captives cannot walk to safety, and these action "heroes" need to be convinced to save a few of them. You can only abandon the rest to a gruesome fate, trapped underneath the rubble or torn to shreds by the detonation that the story decided was "necessary violence". It would be one thing if they tried another solution like creating a portal, calling a rescue team, or shutting down the building instead of obliterating it. But apparently, that's too difficult for these superhero sorcerers.

This cemented my character's resolve to stay loyal to the king. This shocking development could have been genuinely interesting if we were allowed to grapple with its ramifications. But instead, nobody feels anything more than brief sympathy, and you can never argue with them over their ruthless decision. It's even worse when you know that these mages will kill Garrack for planning to betray them. The last trial asks your character "To what lengths would you go to prevent the slaughter of innocents?" You can claim you'll do everything to save them, with no ounce of self-awareness.

The story goes on at length about how this place is your home and how awesome these mages are. It's so biased against the possibility of you choosing your kingdom that you are railroaded into joining them in the end. No, you cannot express sadness or outrage over being robbed of agency. You can't even ask to be a mage emissary so you can go home. It would have been fun for the PC to turn rogue and escape, outsmarting the mages and doing good on their own terms.

Despite allusions to the unsavoury deeds you've done as a spy, they don't create tension or serve a narrative purpose. Maybe the PC never had close friends because they might put them in danger, or they're so used to deception that true friendship feels fake. But due to the lack of an engaging character arc, as well as the limitations in choosing what the PC might say or think, I found it difficult to relate to and flesh out my character.

If you happen to not like any of the four mages, you're still forced to interact with them. You cannot dislike them or be in conflict, even when you are justified in doing so. At most, you get a few chances to think about how they annoy you. This was particularly baffling when meeting Teo and the worst thing you can think of is "He seems nice, but I don't trust easy." Ever heard of "beware the nice ones"? Sure, he emanates comfort magic, but this is someone who has to be persuaded to save prisoners and orders a building to be blown up in an egregious case of protagonist-centred morality.

Out of nowhere, Rae asks what the PC thinks about sex, which is a very personal question for a new acquaintance. If your character rightfully tells her it's none of her business, she only says you're right and makes no apology over how she was being inappropriate. I don't mind that the PC can easily find sexual encounters in an erotica book, but it doesn't mean that social boundaries can suddenly be handwaved away.

The love interests have no memorable introduction, and by the end they still don't seem fully fleshed out. We're told that Kai is angry and vengeful, but this comes up sparingly. It would have been more interesting if he started out as abrasive, then he goes through a character arc as the PC earns his trust. People don't have to be friendly or talkative to be well-rounded characters, and there are more ways to develop them than dialogue. Giving them flaws would probably be more effective than repeatedly bringing up purple-gold-blue-etc. or colour-changing eyes.

The lack of subtlety also applies to the villain, who is wary of you because he's bad, not for any understandable reason like an outsider interfering or creating conflict. The story gives him void-dark eyes because darkness = evil. His character isn't explored further, ironically making this adult novel feel juvenile. His subplot (training many more mages at the cost of sacrificing a few) could have had some nuance. While the king's antagonism is equally ham-fisted and he treats the PC coldly, at least he felt like an actual character. The story mentions that you botched one mission, yet he didn't fire, imprison, or execute you for failure. He still trusts you to succeed. He made an impression precisely because we had to win his approval.

I found it hard to believe that despite coming from another continent, the PC does not experience culture shock. There's no mention of not being familiar with local spices, or how they eat food in a way that the mages find weird because they use their hands. When my character was offered food and there was no rice or curry, I burst out laughing. "Simple spices"? In an Asian-coded culture? And only generic baked goods—no sticky rice cakes, gulab jamun, or apam balik (amongst many choices). The one time there is a rice dish, it's Italian.

The story follows a group that lives in the tropics, eats papayas, practices meditation, and incorporates mandalas in art. And yet, the vast majority of place and character names are Fantasy Apostrophe or European. Who has Asian names like Jilash and Hazima? The magic animals... and one minor character (Jia). It contradicts the textual claim of having diverse backgrounds. This could have been an opportunity to include people and dishes from underrepresented cultures in fantasy. Also, the fact that the only bald character is evil has unfortunate implications given that Buddhist monks shave their heads.

Tl;dr don't come into this very brief game expecting a lesson in Iranian history, but let it spark curiosity in the subject. Best played twice to see how the imagery and headlines change as you return to the beginning.

I liked the interesting juxtaposition between Iranian miniatures as they are interposed with collages and low-poly models, crude intrusions into the beautiful artwork. I would have liked to see more headlines about Mossadegh's career, perhaps more background on his motivations behind nationalising the oil industry. Still, I can see how such an omission may itself serve as commentary on the West's coverage of its colonial policies, implicitly encouraging the player to seek more information.

A good buy on sale. Wish it was a standalone purchase (like WFaS) instead of DLC. Unlike Warband, Viking Conquest has some fun additions that aren't available in Bannerlord:

*Naval combat
*Building your own shelter/settlement anywhere on the map
*Locations with unique encounters
*Improving weapons/armour or commissioning them

However, the usual negatives of Warband still apply here. Only nine save slots, stuttering and general jankiness, repetitive clicking in inventory and party menus, what have you. Troop recruitment is harder now, though at least they still have troop trees (*coughs* WFaS *coughs*).

Tl;dr short but good if you don't mind the lack of build customisation, and you enjoy boss fights that demand patience.

You can't change your character's build or weapons, and Thora's animations are rather slow. But if you enjoy working within those limitations and like to be deliberate in your movements, it's fun and satisfying. Movement itself is somewhat unrefined for M&K controls as you can't aim your axe with a mouse like in Hades. Also, once you realise that you move faster by dodging, you'll practically be rolling your way into Valhalla, which sounds funny but is not exactly good game design. It would've been nice to get the option to sprint. It's for these reasons that I don't think I'll try Valhalla mode; the most I could handle was "normal" difficulty without god powers.

The piece de resistance of Jotun is its boss battles, for there is little else to be had in terms of gameplay. While obviously telegraphed and not many in variety, their attacks deal serious damage, and each has unique environmental hazards. The bosses themselves are a bit uneven in quality. Fe's fight is hilarious because you get to watch her steamroll her own dwarves like they're bowling pins. On the other hand, Hagalaz and Kaunan could be better as you can do nothing about the random bolts/lava cracks, and if you're especially unlucky, they'll trap you in the midst of an attack. The cracks also don't show up well on certain monitors, and there's no way to turn up brightness or gamma in-game. The final boss is kind of boring in comparison to the rest (he basically has one attack... in a game whose bosses have around three...).

The animations are great, accompanied by an exciting soundtrack. Character designs are unique and interesting, about what you'd expect from the Viking theme. Except the final boss, he's a little too "comic book" or "children's animation" for me. Some of the giants' expressions are fun to watch, and without the slow-ish pacing of the fights, I don't think I would've found the time to appreciate the animations.

It's... fine, I guess? Probably get it on sale if you know what to expect. My first impressions (hard difficulty, still in Ribe):

The combat is probably the best part, as it's frustrating yet rewarding. A dozen or so restarts into a particularly difficult fight (the one with the "spirits"), I was ready to give up, only to somehow win. It forces you to learn your party members' skills and juggle tasks/healing injuries, which is good in a strategy game. But if you don't like micromanaging and time limits on exploring the map as you complete quests, you probably won't enjoy it. The quests themselves could use some improvements. Two examples of this (minor spoilers):

- A stranger invites you to a feast that turns out to be an assassination attempt. You kill him and empty out his house. Later, you have to find a way to get a group of orphans to vacate someone's property, but there's no option to move them to the now-empty house. You can only attack them or send them to a farm. I would have appreciated at least 3 options here.

- When I talked to the jarl's guards I exited the dialogue, thinking they were there to waste my time or get my party into trouble. But then I checked the wiki and found that said dialogue was actually the start of a quest... which I now can't complete because the guards won't talk anymore.

As for other aspects, the graphics are okay, with a level of detail that's fine for a CRPG. The camera has a weird limitation on zooming out that makes any area look small and claustrophobic. The story is interesting so far. Dialogue feels modern at times, with the occasional switch to Norse. Companions have their moments, but don't expect them to be on the same level as Bioware games or BG3. They don't interact frequently with each other enough (or with the player character, for that matter) for you to become invested in their narratives and relationships.

I wouldn't say Expeditions: Viking is terrible per se, but based on these impressions I'm not keen on continuing. Who knows, maybe one day I'll find the time to finish it and change my mind. Might start over and do min-max builds.