Recent reviews by doku

My favorite Vietnam war game probably ever. It's got some unique semi-realistic elements that make it more strategic than most FPS.
Best enjoyed when roleplaying as your faction. If you're North, the enemy is "GI", if you're South, the enemy is "Charlie", or alternately as AUS, "C**t"
For a while the anticheat didn't work on linux, and I was sad.
But it got fixed and now I'm very happy!

good and fun

Very satisfying platforming with neat movement tech and cool tunes. If you like metroidvanias and don't mind backtracking some (because it's fun to platform) then you might like this. At first you kinda suck but as you learn you get more comfortable bhopping around the levels. Haven't really played another game with this kind of vibe.

This is a short, fun little helicopter simcade. I picked it up because it evokes a feeling similar to the 1996 Maxis classic, SimCopter. The flight model takes some liberties, but the essentials are all there and work the way you expect. I am an aviator but the controls and handling would probably be easy for anyone to pick up. Yaw is tied to the camera which was a little unusual for me but does simplify control. That's not to say all the bumps are smoothed over, there is still a helicopter flight model you need to stay conscious of. Your craft has inertia, and high descent rates can become unrecoverable because of RPM droop. Certain conditions can even lead you into a vortex ring state (look it up), which is a surprising phenomenon to see modeled in a game like this. There's also hover and cruise modes which make flights a little easier to manage if you care to toggle them.

There is a free flight mode, and a campaign with 30 missions. The missions involve moving people and cargo around an island map in varying weather conditions. You will need to use the gantry crane, a cargo hook, and/or land in certain places. There is a charming little story and characters to go along with them which I thought was fun. The tone of the dialogue and how it's set in this little semi-idealized island nation reminded me of the similarly quirky world Maxis set their Sim games in.

My two main criticisms would be that it is quite short, under 2 hours to complete every mission, and rather easy. Not counted in my playtime are the missions from the demo, which carry over. There are some complicating factors like wind and moving targets, but nothing really difficult, and the time limits are very generous. Sometimes it is unclear if you need to land to pick someone up, or use the gantry crane. I also ran into one bug on Mission 24 which required a quit and reload to resolve. There's some typos, and the dialogue timing could benefit from a little cleanup.

Overall this was a fun, low-friction helicopter simcade that I had fun completing in an afternoon. It seems to be a single-developer project with a clear vision and goal. It also runs Linux native and uses the excellent FOSS Godot engine, which for me gives the developer extra aura points. I imagine this game runs great on the Deck. I hope they add a few more features to bump up the challenge and replayability to keep people interested. Some new mission and equipment types, and a dynamic mission mode would really flesh things out.

Intrusive anticheat which prevents Linux play. I tried it briefly on Windows, took one look at the skins/customization, and decided this isn't the kind of game designed for someone of my age or sensibilities.

I guess we doin circles now

Hey you, the person reading this, yes, YOU! Stop reading reviews and play the demo. You will know whether you're into this game or not within a few minutes.

For those still with us, here is my take. I enjoy this game because I can craft cool builds that stack all sorts of crazy effects without spending hours grinding. The game tells you everything you need upfront with detailed descriptions of effects and a straightforward set of rules on how they interact, so you don't need to hunt through wikis or meticulously plan a build before investing into it. You'll never be stymied by a bad roll of the dice because there are no chance-based effects. It all boils down to picking your character, skills, equipment, and battles wisely. Do it right and your enemies will satisfyingly evaporate among the literal pages of effect and damage procs every turn. Do it wrong, and you'll meet a swift end. Either way, you'll surely be tempted into another journey down... (mysterious voice) the Path of Achra...

If you played the original Talos Principle, you know roughly what to expect. If you didn't, you're probably best served trying that first, then coming back here. But you could skip it if you really want, the events of the first game are explained in this one. Either way, if you're not into puzzles then this isn't for you.

Compared to Talos 1, many puzzle elements are carried over, with a few new additions. You will be connecting colored lasers, pressing buttons to open doors, making a path where there wasn't before, and flinging yourself or other objects around. The main puzzles vary in difficulty from easy to rather challenging, but all of them are solvable if you stop to think and plan your actions knowing how things interact and which areas you can access. Remember you can pick up some fans. Unlike Talos 1, there are no lethal hazards inside puzzles. You can skip puzzles if you find certain hidden items in the world. Besides a few tutorial/story-related puzzles, there's 12 main areas containing 8 required puzzles each, with 2 more hidden and not required. Completing the hidden puzzles unlocks 1 puzzle in each area, and completing all 12 of those unlocks the (subjectively) best ending. There are also secret stars you can collect by flipping hidden switches, following a particle trail, or "jailbreaking" puzzle elements to "solve" them. Collecting these only gives a short cinematic and achievement.

The story is a continuation of Talos 1, the main difference being that the other characters also have robot bodies that you speak and interact with. Visually this is a little off-putting at first, but it makes sense in context and I quickly found myself getting immersed despite that. The characters also grew on me, and I appreciate how well-written and nicely voiced they all are. There's lots of lore via log entries and audio recordings if you care to look for them. You will need to grab a few to complete the story, but if you're the impatient type, you can skip most dialogue and cinematics. There's a few different endings, and you can't see all the story branches (and achievements) in one playthrough, in case that bothers you.

On the technical side, performance is good with many options you can tune from low to high end. The visuals are stunning. I lament the passing of Serious Engine from Talos 1, but understand why Croteam would choose something more maintainable like Unreal.

I do have some minor nitpicks. First is the areas are rather large and require a lot of running between puzzles. You run fast which is good, but that time still adds up when revisiting areas for hidden/golden puzzles and looking for secrets. Second is I wish there were more challenging puzzles that required using or combining elements in an interesting new way. A good example is the puzzle where the key is to drop the laser tripod off the edge, I wish there was more of that. Longer puzzles too -- I understand short puzzles are less likely to frustrate a casual player, but larger optional puzzles could be a fitting challenge for more fortuitous players. Lastly, upscaling is enabled by default and disabling it caused frame dips. I don't like the ghosting and blurriness from upscaling, but I dislike sub-60 framerates much more so I just lived with the lesser evil. At the end of the day, I don't think any of these issues should deter you.

Overall it's a very well constructed brain-teasing puzzle experience set in a fascinating world with thought-provoking storytelling. Personally I had no idea a sequel was in the works until it came out, so it was a very nice surprise to experience this world again.

The fighting is flashy and kinda neat but the whole game is just arenas separated by linear corridors with waist-high obstacles. The coop was glitchy.

I like this game because it scratches the Hitman itch of learning and mastering an area, and then using that knowledge against others in PvP invasions. It's very rough around the edges (the online especially) and the lack of level variety may be a turn-off to some people, but if that doesn't faze you I'd say it's worth a try. Get it on sale.