Recent reviews by kccricket

I get that this is supposed to be silly, but the recoil on most guns is way over the top.

This is another one of those games that I really wanted to like, but found myself disliking it more and more until I (admittedly) ragequit.

Transistor is gorgeous. The voiceover is well done. The gameplay is unique and initially refreshing. I even enjoyed the first two-thirds of the game... then I started to find it frustrating.

I'll list off the things I didn't like, from smallest to largest:

1. Far too often, things don't happen during Turn() the way you plan them. For example, you hit a distant enemy with Get(), which pulls them closer, but they randomly end up next to you (!) instead of in front of you, so your followup attacks completely miss. I don't feel that increases the challenge of the game--it just makes fights last longer and leaves a sour taste in my mouth.
   
2. The concept of choosing and combining abilities to tailor the game to your playstyle is refreshing at first, but rather tedious later in the game. The game is difficult enough, I felt pressured to min/max and pick the perfect combination of abilities. I get about 10 minutes of gameplay before I spend 5 or more minutes at an Access Point and reevaluate because I've lost an ability (see gripe no. 4 below). It breaks up the flow of the game too much and becomes tiring.
   
3. Enemies do too much damage, and there are too few ways to mitigate damage. The enemy that made me ragequit takes 5/6ths of your full healthbar in one hit. Some lifesteal would be nice. Maybe a shield?
   
4. The worst thing about Transistor: the game get's harder if you don't play perfectly, or didn't somehow have clairvoiance enough to pick just the right abilities for a fight you don't even know is coming. When you drop to zero health during a fight, you lose one of your abilities for the rest of the fight, and probably the next fight, too--and it's probably going to be your most important ability. You're forced to finish the current fight--which already killed you once--without one of the most important abilities that would help you finish the fight. Who thought that would make good, fun gameplay? I'd seriously rather just start the fight over again.

I'd like to finish the game, but I have my blood pressure to think about.

All in all, I enjoyed Broken Age. The story was good, the humor was funny, and the voice acting was spot on. Most of the puzzles in the game are easy to easy-moderate, generally involving giving people the things they need or telling them the things they want to hear. To me, the hardest puzzles were two near the end that required more abstract thinking. I know I have to do X, and here's a diagram that's likely related, but I had difficulty determining HOW it was related. However, I find this is pretty typical for adventure games--the puzzles tend to fall apart near the end of the game.

Still, you should play it.

The critics seem to love this game. The visuals are well done, and the concept of the mechanics is very unique. I don't think the critics tried to play it all the way through. Some of the puzzles are needlessly cryptic and exceedingly frustrating. When solving a puzzle, I rarely experienced that "Aha!" moment I find with most other puzzle platformers. Every step required to solve a puzzle feels like it resides in a void. Much of the time, I couldn't possibly see how that thing I just did with the box, or the globe, or the lamp is supposed to help me reach the end. I just move on to the next action that may or may not actually be the next correct action.

Closure also seems to completely devoid of story to give me the motivation to suffer through the puzzles.

Also, the "block breaks light globe" mechanic is nonsense. Seriously, screw that. The ragequit moment: I dropped a light globe next to a block, and the light globe went "poof" on my 10th attempt.

Solid puzzle platformer. However, the game requires you to manually decipher messages and directions, which really slows things down. I've only felt frustrated a few times, though.

Of the roguelikes I own, I feel this one embodies the spirit of Rogue the closest. The game never really gets easier, you just get better at playing it.

I purchased this game based on what I saw in the video trailer. I saw a retro-style action adventure game with a deep, sad, yet sweet story that would make me think about life and fill me with a desire to help this poor protagonist sprite. Perhaps it's my fault for misinterpreting the trailer, but it seems to be more like the developer misrepresented the game quite heavily.

Rather than your typical adventure game where you advance the story by exploring new areas, fighting the Bad Stuff, and engaging in dialogue with NPCs, you have here a frantic experience of rushing to find disappearing NPCs to talk to and doors to enter punctuated by uninspired slice-and-dice minigames.

On the up side, the introductory cutscene sequence is a beautiful thing to watch, but I could have done that on YouTube.

Overall, Limbo is an enjoyable puzzle platformer. It had one or two puzzles that were too clever for me, but I still had fun.

If you haven't played Braid, then you are an uncultured swine.

Sometimes, it's just fun to see how long you can survive.