Recent reviews by blake++

I have a background in difficult 2D platformers like N++ (348h) & Celeste (341h). I also have thousands of hours across Source Engine games, where I almost solely played bunnyhop & surf gamemodes. I also am a tier 5 rocket jumper on TF2 with over 2000 hours.

• You feel very in control at all times of your character
  
• Multiple paths exist for a lot of obstacles so you can take your pick

• Movement is still too floaty and basic; feels like default Unity movement
  
• No ability to fastfall really hurts the flow of the game
  
• SFX can be very repetitive when doing rapid sequences of boosters
  
• Sometimes really confusing on where to go since everything looks the exact same
  
• Some jumps are awkwardly precise when they shouldn't be because your hurtbox is weirdly placed
  
• Collectibles are just hidden awkwardly around the map instead of being extra challenges
  
• Gravity switching is way too numerous; despite playing VR, I felt nauseous at several points
  
• The rocket jumping feature is not satisfying

Deadcore really doesn't have a lot going for it. Especially in today's market where precision FPS games with heavy emphasis on movement are highly prevalent, Deadcore is just forgettable. The truth is that with most games like this, 99% of the time the experience you are looking for is one you find in community servers and mods.

Gooner game. Dunno how I forgot vanripper's a coomer. My fault I guess.
Also, runs live or die so heavily on RNG it's insane. The level designs consist of extremely tight corridors which further exacerbates the problem. Visibility is really bad thanks to all ghosts having the same color scheme.

Fun experience, but there's a lot of little details everywhere and the stage manager INSISTS on nagging you over and over again. I barely had any time to soak up the environments. It had a great sense of humor though. Highly recommend!

Settings

• Played on v1.0.11
  
• Black flashbang on
  
• Played on Rookie
  
• Equipment 1

• Gameplay loop is actually quite fun
  
• Gunplay can feel pretty good (except for shotguns)
  
• Dying still has a con (technically) but it's very minor and allows for you to take risks

• The game would be so much more intuitive and easier if it was first person. 2.5D just doesn't work well enough
  
  • Everything's based on your vision cone but it just feels sorta awkward. To scout ahead I usually use a sniper rifle with a medium-range scope and repeatedly zoom in so I don't get blindsided (which is awkward)
    
  • A lot of the atmosphere that makes games like these so tense and interesting is lost due to this disconnected worldview
    
  • Guns feel less natural to handle as a result, especially when they jam
    
  • This also results in sound cues being more simplistic and less spatial
• Issues with enemy AI are reoccurring
  
  • Enemies aren't affected by radiation; when you kill them, in order to loot them you just have to tank the rads. At least let me drag the body or something
    
  • Enemy AI feels really simplistic; often it's just them pushing the everliving ♥♥♥♥ out of you
    
  • Enemies are just better at night fighting than you are
• QoL is not great
  
  • Loot pools are ass; supplies that you need may just not spawn on runs. Since it's singleplayer, I don't think anyone would care if the loot pools bent in the player's favor a bit.
    
  • It's hard to tell what is total junk and what isn't. A rarity rating on items would help players who don't know the item pool well to determine if they should grab something
    
  • The game can track what items you need for crafting something, but doesn't update based on the items you have at home or in the field, which is SO awful.
    
  • General SFX for buttons is ANNOYING; menu music is grating. (how is this not fixed yet???)
    
  • Items will often overlap each other in your inventory when quicklooting
    
  • Skill upgrade notifications cover up valuable info during combat
    
  • In general using your PDA is just an awkward and unfriendly experience. It doesn't have a lot of the info I want
• Runs of the Forest area often feel very samey since there are very few landmarks that actually matter
  
• Shotguns are genuinely ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ trash
  
• Game has a bad first impression
  
  • No tools to tell who is friend or foe. You only learn through losing
    
  • Game kinda just throws you in with zero explanation; it's a wiki game. A lot is intuitive if you've played STALKER before but as someone who's played that but not EFT I had some difficulty adjusting
    
  • It's not clear what people you need to talk to and why. Home Base doesn't have a map showcasing who's who so you kinda have to run around checking each NPC

I really like what Zero Sievert is trying to do, but ultimately I don't really think this perspective works well. It doesn't help there's also a bunch of other issues that should realistically be resolved by now. The game doesn't feel quite as finished as it should be. I don't regret playing Zero Sievert, but I can say that I don't recommend it to others if you're looking for a way to scratch a STALKER-shaped itch. It's just not the same.

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.