Recent reviews by Geoball

Dave the Diver. How do you even begin to describe it? At it's core, it's an exploration and resource gathering rogue-lite, but much like a Billy Mays commercial, it keeps saying "but wait, there's more!". It's got restaurant management, vegetable farming, fish farm management, several mini games and side quests, an overarching story line, and interesting characters.

Is it a perfect game? No. At times, the extra stuff it introduces can feel a little overwhelming (you're never obligated to actually do them though). I also thought the game sometimes over-explained some of the game play elements (like how to solve a puzzle).

Is it a game that's worth your time? Absolutely. Outside of a few minor complaints, this game is truly fantastic. To steal what another review said, this game is "full of heart" and it honestly shows. The developers did a great job making this.

I have never played a game that's been so full of baboons and toots before.
It is truly one of the rhythm games of all time.

I went into this blind, as recommended by so many people. Literally didn't know what the game was about. Had an absolute blast (mixed with some frustration) with the first chapter. A mysterious spooky roguelike card game? A+, would definitely recommend.

Then chapter 2 started. And, in my opinion, this is when the bottom fell out of it. I'm not going to spoil anything, but the game pivots to some new game mechanics. Then chapter 3 starts, and it happens all over again. There's only so many times you can change everything around. As some points, it felt like three separate games clumsily jammed into one.

Look, I can appreciate what was being attempted here. With all the meta and spooky stuff. But the gameplay becomes too disjointed to be any fun. And maybe I had bad luck for some of it, but when the card draws are random, the beginning of chapter 2 was an exercise in frustration that almost made me give up on the game (kept pulling unusable cards and losing within the first few turns).

All in all, I'd give it a 6/10 but I can't actively recommend this.

Do I recommend this game? Yes, but with a caveat. If you don't like Justin Roiland's brand of humour, you probably won't like this game. This is definitely Roiland's "blurt out a stream of consciousness and see what sticks" kind of humour at its peak. I played through it with a friend and there's some parts that fall flat, but on the whole, it was a funny and enjoyable experience. Gameplay clocked in at about 8-ish hours. A lot of that time will be spent listening to dialogue between characters.

For anyone wondering if you need VR or not, I don't have a VR headset, so I played through it on a regular monitor and it's perfectly fine. I don't feel like I missed out on anything.

"Back in my day, Valve used to make video games and their games were some of the best narrative-driven first-person games ever made. And they're still just as good all these years later as when they originally came out"

"Sure, Grandpa. Let's get you back to the nursing home"

To start off with a warning: Anyone going into this expecting a city building game is going to be disappointed. This isn't SimCity or Cities: Skylines. At it's core, this is a tile-based puzzle game.

So what is Dorfromantik? Well, you get a stack of tiles to place anywhere you want and when the stack is gone, it's game over. To get more tiles, you need to complete tasks (things like "make a city with 25 house" or "make a railroad with 14 tracks"). You can also get additional tiles by making perfect placements (when all 6 edges of a tile match). And that's pretty much it. If it sounds simple, it's because it is. The fun comes from trying to complete the objectives and achievements and trying to beat your high score.

The real nightmare here is the clunky controls and the annoying checkpoint system. If you can suffer past those problems, you'll find an atmospheric puzzle game with an interesting art direction/aesthetic.

I want to say I'm "disappointed", but really the feeling is closer to "meh". I knew it was a short game going into it, so the 3-ish hour playtime didn't shock me, but honestly, I was getting bored with it after an hour.

The gameplay is mostly an exercise in clicking through dialogue boxes and occasionally choosing a response from a choice of two or three. Your choices sort of matter in the sense that the game will reflect and reference them, but the overall story is fixed and there's really only one ending. The actual gameplay, brief as it was, consists of a stint at making pottery, mixing a few drinks, and solving the last puzzle by figuring out which phone numbers to dial.

In terms of similar games that trend towards more of a visual novel approach (or an interactive movie), rather than a traditional game, I feel like this one just falls flat for me. In a game like this, both the story and dialogue need to be rock solid because that's basically all it has to offer, and unfortunately this game doesn't quite deliver on that.

Titanfall 2 is a game that's over four years old now but still definitely holds up, both in the graphics and gameplay department. It has some of the best and smoothest movement mechanics of any FPS game out there.

The single player campaign is short (6-ish hours) but has an enjoyable storyline and interesting characters.

The multiplayer is good. It isn't dead, although it isn't super active either. I've been playing the multiplayer on and off for the last couple of weeks and haven't had any issues finding matches, but the game modes do tend to be the same. There's several game modes but you'll most likely be playing Attrition (which is like team deathmatch) or the 4-player Frontier Defense (survive 5 waves of enemies). Both of these modes are fun so it's not the biggest deal but it would be nice to have a bigger variety.

One big positive about the multiplayer is that while most of the guns are locked behind a level system (or you can pay money), the guns that you start off with are entirely usable and are actually some of the better guns in the game (R-202/101 and CAR). So despite what the gun stats say on the loadout screen (the stats are BS), you don't need to unlock guns to "get" better. Getting better really boils down to learning the movement system (jumping, wall running, etc), aiming, and practicing Titan combat (Frontier Defense is great for that).

Although maybe a bit expensive at full price these days (CDN$ 39.99), it's definitely worth a look, especially if it comes on sale.

The easy and quick review is: If you liked Doom 2016, you'll like Doom Eternal. It's very much more of the same and a continuation from 2016. If you haven't played Doom 2016 (and for some reason don't want to), I think Doom Eternal also stands well enough on its own that you aren't going to miss much.

To expand on that, it's actually a double edged sword in my opinion. I would say that I enjoyed Doom 2016 more than Eternal because at the time, it was something new and exciting. And while Eternal is a good game and it refines a lot of what made 2016 good, it's not exactly brimming with new ideas. Most of the weapons/mods/upgrades are the same and a lot of the enemies are as well. For the weapons, they do introduce a shoulder flamethrower/grenade launcher and a sword later in the game. There are, of course, some new enemies and the bosses are new as well.

One immediate difference between 2016 and Eternal is that Eternal is a lot more "video game-y" than 2016. The pick-ups are bright colours and float in the air. The secrets are big yellow floating/rotating question marks. There's extra life pick-ups that you can save and use later.

Combat and level design is very similar to 2016. You have combat areas that you have to clear out and exploration areas that connect between them. The 1-up pick-ups definitely make combat easier because you can die and it revives you right away if you have extra lives. I have a mixed opinion about this because while it certainly saved me many times, it does feel like it removes a sense of importance around dying when you can die once/twice/several times in a fight and just keep going. The stakes don't feel quite as high as they did in 2016 where if you died, you went back to a checkpoint and had to keep getting better until you didn't die.

The graphics are fantastic. The atmosphere is very much "Doom" and the music is just as great as the first one.

The story is okay. A lot of the story is told through the codex, so if you really want to get the most out of it, you have to collect and read the codex entries (the main ones being the Story of Earth, the Story of the Sentinels, and the Story of Hell). If you're not into that kind of stuff, I don't think you'll really miss anything big.

All in all, a good entry in the Doom series. The main campaign runs about 12-ish hours.