Recent reviews by ipinteus

Stygian could do with a bit more polish, but it's still a decent execution of an outstanding concept. Had the developers kept at it a bit longer, it would be an undeniable addition to the cRPG hall of fame.

Pretty tight digital version of the green books I cut my teeth in, RPG-wise. Would be awesome to get some more original content for it, as well as more classics.

Just finished my first playthrough of the game and I'm simply gobsmacked by how unique it is. If this game had been released in the 16 bit era, it would have easily revolutionised the industry on style and gameplay alone.

The story is left purposely mysterious and vague, in order to encourage multiple playthroughs. My first playthrough took me 2-3 hours, taking my time and talking to everyone. At each playthrough you define your character anew, giving him stats and traits as you play. These not only allow you to mix up you playstyle, but also determine what sort of feedback the world provides to your character, meaning that the game's rich and colorfoul mythology is revealead only a little bit on each run, painting a bigger picture every time you start again.

The procedural nature of it, to me, is ingenious. It allows you to have a different experience each time, without it ever feeling truly random, pointless, or even just bland. This exotic feel exists courtesy of a bold art direction that, while not completely alien and thus relatable, still manages to beautifully dodge most of the genre's tropes.

Because this is a factor that I value quite a lot, I'll add here that, while it definitely does not feel "Dungeons & Dragons" at all, it also doesn't in any way feel like a weebo product. This is NOT a JRPG. This is, in fact, a perfect example of how to present an original setting that eschews tolkienesque similes without having it look like it was spat out by Square Enix!

Slumlord Simulator is a micro-game where you're put in the shoes of a piece-of-♥♥♥♥ trying to squeeze as much money as possible from his tennants while avoiding being lynched before he sods off to Bermuda. It's a mean little concept that I'l admit is interesting, but gameplay just feels very empty and repetitive.

There's only a handful of things you can do each turn, no real nuance in the choice between evil and evil, and the crescendo of hatred that inevitably results in the tenants rioting against you always feels very detached, not at all pressing. I was murdered without really feeling the pressure to change my methods.

Graphically it's ok, I guess. This is obviously a one man project. Some stylization would help though, and maybe some illustrations to convey the written scenes better. Looking at crappy houses gets tiresome after a while.

I feel some reluctance in giving this game a negative review, because it's not exactly an absolute stinker (like so many of these small projects are), but in good faith it cannot be recommended. Not at its price, anyway. This is a 50 cent title, not 3€. It's a game you fire up once, ride it wherever it leads you (most likely death at the hands of your tennants), and forget about it forever.

This is a crappy little adventure game that you can blast through in less than 2 minutes, maybe 15 minutes if you tried to get all 15 endings. You won't, though, that's a guarantee.

Underground Gossip offers nothing in terms of enjoyable gameplay, which graphic adventures rarely do, but the offer is not any better on the narrative side. Pretty juvenile humor that, having played other Russian games, I deduce is what passes for funny for a significant slice of the Russian developer demographic. It's not that it's shocking or a counter to PC culture, it's just not clever or well-written. The pixel graphics are endearing enough, but any good will they create is brutally murdered when you realise there's ever only one single static room.

As something conceived by a child experimenting with game development, it would be an OK effort and I'd gladly chip in 50 cents as charity. But I suspect that a grown-ass adult spent his (or her's - though let's face it, "his") productive time getting this garbage together. That's sad.

Extremely fun if a little bit short narrative game. I got it this morning, it's not yet midnight and I've finished it.

The game setting is wonderfully realized, through implicit details rather than blatant exposition. It doesn't just tell, it actually shows - which is kind of surprising since this game is pretty much a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure gamebook spread over a digital boardgame frame.

The artistic direction is really, really good, good enough to cleverly disguise the game's budget. Makes it seem far more aesthetically pleasing than if the developers shot for animated models, I'm sure.

As a fan of tabletop roleplaying games, this really hit home with its narrative focus and the originality with which it redresses all the clichés of the post-apocalypse.

Surprisingly superb little game.

The cyberpunk aesthetic is perfectly nailed, both graphically and narratively. It won't expand the limits of the genre, but hits most of its notes perfectly. All of the (many, many) plotpoints are derived from cyberpunk tropes, sure, but not in a burdensome, in-your-face way. It tells a bunch of stories, separate but all thematically blending into a gorgeously woven tapestry.

The RPG elements are well integrated and as important to the overall experience as the Metroidvania-style action platformer gameplay that one is expecting after previewing Dex via screenshots or videos.

The graphics are detailed, very evocative, and far surpass the vast majority of modern-retro pixel-art games that I've seen. The game works beautifully with them, and they work beautifully with the game.

All in all, myself being a recent appreciator of "indie gaming" (still hate the term), this game really showed me how great an experience I can derive from a handful of €uro and a free weekend. As a long term aficionado of both RPGs and Cyberpunk, I'm ecstatic that it did.

10 / 10