Recent reviews by blake++

View my base game review here.

• Extremely cool new puzzle mechanic with lots of variation based around the flashlight. They continually innovate on this mechanic and play with it in interesting, unexpected ways
  
• Planning ahead is heavily encouraged, even more than the base game, with the added gimmick of the ring world
  
• The way you discover the DLC is really neat and feels natural within the rest of the world
  
• The new untranslatable language is a nice changeup
  
• Other great things about Outer Wilds generally apply here. Not as much of a "wow" factor compared to the base game but things are still interesting and impressive.
  
• The game takes it up a notch on the spooky/creepy factor which is much appreciated, until...

The last quarter of the DLC introduces a stealth horror section, but does it in all the wrong ways. This ruined my experience.

• The enemies operate based off light; they can't hear (there is nothing that indicates this is the case; in fact, environmental hints and visual design dictate that they CAN hear)
  
• If enemies spot you, they immediately aggro and track you perfectly unless you break line of sight.
  
• To avoid being spot, you need to conceal your lamp. Concealing your lamp puts you in COMPLETE darkness; you can't see anything.
  
• You need to be able to navigate in complete darkness. This requires map memorization. Two out of three areas are incredibly complex.
  
• The enemies will ALSO sit in complete darkness until you alert them. You can easily bump into an enemy since it blocks a choke point.

In order to get past an enemy, you need to know where it is, have memorized the map layout, then bait it one way, go behind cover to break line of sight, then quickly flank them in total darkness. Time still ticks while you're in this dream world (because the developers are sadists here) so each run costs precious time until you have to spawn on Timber Hearth, get in your ship, fly to The Stranger, get inside, get on a boat to which location you need to get to, find an artifact, then get to a campfire and sleep so you can try again.
This process is agonizing and quickly made my whole experience of the DLC sour. I had put in 5.5 hours of work to get to that point and I felt I had to stop because I wasn't having fun at all.

• You don't have a ship log easily available in the DLC so you need to memorize any codes, paths, locations, etc. This is INCREDIBLY annoying, esp because the sequences you need them for are pretty complex
  
• DLC is extremely isolated in its own part of the map so every time you have to start at Timber Hearth, you have to immediately travel there; it's a complete waste of time for no reason
  
• Existing issues/bugs with Outer Wilds still occur

Echoes of the Eye is a good DLC up until it gets ruined with a horrible forced stealth horror section near the end. The developers fail to take cues from existing stealth horror games and design a system that is so genuinely unfun it stopped me from playing. I really wanted to like this DLC since the base game is one of the best indie titles of all time, but regrettably the stealth horror section in the DLC is so bad it destroys the experience for me. Do not buy.

Also, I don't recommend the DLC, so if you're thinking about getting both, just buy the base game. See my review on that here.

Foreword
I knew that I was in some sort of time loop but other than that had no knowledge of the game.
Finished ending in 15 hrs, no hints except for a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ puzzle near the end (Ash Twin Project warp pad)

Settings
Played on Dualsense Edge

• Plenty of jaw-dropping moments while exploring that make you FEEL like you're actually there with how insane it is
  
  • The "oh wow" moments in this game where you connect the dots and the stars align are ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ UNPARALLELED (eg getting to the Eye via the phantom moon for the first time; seeing the other environments on the phantom moon)
    
  • Other naturally stupefying moments like the sun exploding
• The puzzles on offer have interesting dynamics that coexist and play with the setting in interesting and intuitive ways (especially the quantum stuff)
  
  • The game's invisible hand is able to guide you quite well that you always feel like you have something to look into and you never feel truly stuck
• Worldbuilding is great; there's lots of little details that make the areas feel like someone was/is there
  
  • The game builds up the world and characters pretty well without feeling forced and you end up attached to at least some of them, esp the ones who didn't make it
    
  • The non-linear aspect encourages you to make your own plans in order to explore everything; you have to prioritize certain things above others on loops
• The emotional impact is fantastic
  
  • The ending is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ amazing and so brutal. It was a total ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ but also made me sob. It makes the music for the game and the general setting re-entering the time loop that much more haunting. Sure, more life will be here in 14.3 billion years, but you also lose out on the chance to grow, to change, and to die on your own terms. I really like how the game asks you to get ready to die, even if you didn't want to.
    
  • Emotions I felt while playing: extreme isolation, comradery, hopelessness, hopefulness, terrified, too late, out of your depth
• Soundtrack is really great and fits the game perfectly
  
• Nice QoL features
  
  • Even though things are out of order it doesn't feel too impossible to piece them together via the rumor map
    
  • The "pause time while reading" functionality is REALLY nice and thoughtful

• The lock on feature just doesn't work on half of all runs; Using Dualsense Edge via Steam Input (in-game controller support doesn't work for me)
  
• There is no clock so you have to vaguely wait for timed events to occur (i genuinely don't understand why this isn't in the game)
  
• Getting to the Ash Twin Project (part of the endgame) is not intuitive at all
  
• You can't tell any of the NPCs at home about the time loop in any significant way; It's really lame and a total missed opportunity to provide some different perspectives on it and other heavier topics. The astronauts sorta fulfill this role but the NPCs at home are totally neglected
  
• Unskippable death screens that show the loop every time lead to you quitting out before the loop ends just to avoid the slow-ass cutscene
  
• The characters at home not having a speaking voice at all and just being totally silent feels awkward. I think Vocaloid/UTAU/SynthV voices would've been great
  
• No options to make the crosshair more subtle; it's always there even when it doesn't need to be, and can lessen the impact of some moments
  
• Performance really struggles at times when it really shouldn't
  
• Following relationships and storylines not part of the game's rumor map is incredibly difficult. Due to the random initial order of the story and large amount of characters, you end up glossing over unnecessary dialogue since remembering character dynamics and traits of nonexistent people is difficult. Even when the story is put together for you in a linear format later in the game, it's exhausting trying to reconnect those dots to what you already know.
  
• I appreciate what the ending tries to do by making it feel a lot more weighted and important, but it falls flat since it's a game. Maybe if it was somehow permadeath or there was some broader consequence I'd feel that weight?
  
• The ship log doesn't tell you truly what else is left to be explored so if you want to get the achievement for getting all the ship logs you have to look up a guide or recheck everything

Outer Wilds is one of the best indie games I've ever played. It's exploration aspect is totally incredible, and the game does a great job at immersing you in its world. Few games have been able to pull such a vast variety of emotions out of me like Outer Wilds can. The game feels great to play from a mechanical standpoint, and the puzzles feel reasonable but still require some thought on the player's end. The various issues that still aren't fixed are a stain on an otherwise phenomenal experience, but quite a few of them can be resolved via mods. I can't believe I've waited this long to play it.

Excellent and strange puzzler involving non-euclidean goodness.

It's pretty funny with great style and charm. Definitely an indie game everyone should play once.

Short but a very interesting experience. Not sure why I didn't write a review when I originally played this.

Utterly fantastic puzzle game with a good difficulty curve and great atmosphere. It's a no brainer. Grab the Valve Complete Pack.

Trying to get back into this game after a long break is like trying to get your PhD but instead of starting with the basics you're thrown into a lab with concepts you know nothing about and are expected to just "figure it out". Back when this game released I could understand the operators, somewhat understand the maps, and I could have fun, but with the massive catalog of operators now, large amount of maps, and an unfriendly community, it's genuinely miserable. Study or leave, and at this point I'd rather just leave.
There's a good game at the core of this I think. Getting into it NOW feels like a herculean task.

Settings

• Played on a Dualshock Edge with Steam Input
  
• I played to 100% each level

• Dynamic soundtrack is fantastic
  
• If this was released in current_year, it would be called Gay and Communist because it is and it's based

• Levels are just SO LONG with no mid-game save button. It's to the point where I would tab
  
• The game does not innovate enough to keep you continually invested. New enemies are introduced but they don't shake up the gameplay enough. Later levels feel like a sludge since it's just More of the Same.
  
• Camera is not great
  
• Platforming is far too floaty and edgeless
  
• A lot of buildings you're supposed to get onto are JUST above the height you can jump, so you have to find some other janky way to get on top of them. Happens way too often
  
• The lock-on system for targeting is meh
  
• Cutscenes are VERY low res
  
• 100%ing levels is a pain since not everything is tracked by the compass, which can lead you to continually combing through a level over and over

If this game was half of the length and 1/4 the price tag I'd be happy, but since it isn't, I'm not. de Blob fails to innovate to keep experienced gamers interested. The mechanics are far too shallow for the length of the game. I highly recommend listening to the soundtrack and avoiding the game itself. It just doesn't hold up like I remember it did when I was a kid.

Notes
A bug with Steam Notes caused a lot of my initial thoughts on the game to be deleted.
I only played the campaign. Haven't felt like returning yet to try Arena.

• Gameplay loop is fun albeit simplistic at times. I wish there were more interesting dynamics for players to utilize to combo and deal with larger swarms. Sometimes it can feel like mashing M1, even on the hardest difficulty.
  
• Lot of style and charm
  
• Music is great

• AI teammates are incredibly ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ useless and it's game-ruining. AI teammates don't autopickup new guns when the old ones are spent (????). They go down all the time and require constant revives. They waste bullets on enemies who can't be damaged by bullets. Also, you can switch between you and an AI partner on the fly to change what you're dealing with. However, in the endgame, the game throws the entire kitchen sink at you and your AI teammate just cannot deal with whatever you put it in. This is made worse by the fact that if your squad wipes, you have to restart the entire level. I've lost 20+ minutes of progress several times because my AI teammates would just continually screw up and there was nothing I could do. It is the critical issue that ruins the campaign for me.
  
• The hardest difficulty is locked behind completion even though the difficulty below it is so easy I was able to first try most levels.
  
• Controls feel a little bit weird for new players. Aiming is definitely something that takes getting used to, and even when you're used to it it's still not phenomenal. I think they made the best of a bad system though.
  
• A pair of bosses is recycled at LEAST 3 times.
  
• Cutscenes are amateurish; there is blatant clipping of models at times and the cutscenes themselves feel slow. I find myself having to manually advance the cutscene to make it feel more natural. Also, to save money and time on voice acting, they use generic voice lines that indicate emotion or tone. This is a fine system, but Christoff refuses to work with Hank in text, but Christoff says "Impressive" as he refuses. ?????
  
• One boss (The Sherriff) is so embarassingly easy; you can just keep wailing on him with punches and he can't fight back. The fight becomes trivial, which is bad for a boss fight that's been built up.

Madness: Project Nexus is actually a good game. I think in co-op with a competent buddy you would totally clean house and have fun doing it, but as a singleplayer campaign experience, issues with AI make this unfinishable. I really wanted to like this game, but in its current state, I cannot recommend it.

I saw it in the promotional material and dumbly looked past it because I had heard good things about Beat Hazard. A blatant mistake on my part.

AI image generation is soulless, corporate garbage that uses illegally obtained datasets to produce awful art. It steals from indie artists (aka people like our developer here), and it is incredibly harmful to our environment.
How do you feel about people who pirate your games, Steve from Cold Beam Games? Do you feel like people are stealing something you put effort and passion into? I bet it doesn't feel good, and it especially doesn't feel good for your wallet. So why are you okay with doing it to others?
I know why; at some point, you got lazy and cheap. You decided that instead of buying a 3D model from an asset store and throwing it into Blender or, god forbid, commissioning a small indie artist, you'd use AI. You figured it probably wouldn't affect your income.

Well, here I am; the consequences of your decisions. I bought the entire trilogy, and now I'm refunding the entire trilogy. Maybe I would've fallen in love with BH3 or BH2. Maybe I would've followed your socials, looked forward to any other games you may produce. Instead, you've lost a customer.