Recent reviews by -NB-Mbaya

Crystal Guardians Prologue is very enjoyable Tower Defence and appears to be a great snapshot of the full game.

✅ A nice selection of towers.
✅ Good and varied itemisation and synergies.
✅ Skill tree meta progression.

❌ Effects can be a little overwhelming.
❌ Map generation could be improved slightly.
❌ Enemies are a bit generic.

As is normal for most Tower Defence games, you place towers using currency earned from defeating enemies during waves.

Crystal Guardians however, also rewards players with a selection of random items after each wave (and sometimes earned via loot towers discovered or generated from farming kills within range) that can be equipped to your existing towers with a wide range of effects and bonuses. You can continue to refine your strategies mid game as you're free to swap items to different towers as you progress. While some items clearly have great synergies, you can also unlock recipe's that enable you to upgrade or evolve the effects when you collect a set of certain items. Towers can also earn Experience as they make kills (or you can invest into them with your own gold) and upon reaching level 10, you can choose one of two upgrades.

Each wave is began by extending your existing map based on where your path has lead, this can sometimes lead to a tiny frustration early on as the path could split (giving the enemy two directions to spawn from) giving you less chance of a good kill zone. This might however, result in a bit more challenge for those that seek it.

Personally, I'd either like for the first few waves to be unable to branch to separate paths or see a system introduced where you can influence how the path will be generated (things like Straight Path, Corner Path, Split Path or maybe introduce terrain effects or even enemy buffs). Possibly buying zones to use, paying to increase the chance or a simple selection). A minor personal inconvenience however that doesn't distract from a really good Tower Defence game!

Further more, you earn experience as you kill enemies with each level granting you a skill point to spend in a Skill Tree after your game, providing enhancements to specific attack types, towers in general or a towers upgrade. I did feel the experience granted was a bit too much too quickly, but that's very nitpicky and I understand will vary from person to person.

There is also a really nice breakdown at the end of a game (win or lose) that shows you how your individual towers performed (damage, damage over time, critical damage and kills) and what items they had equipped. I'd also quite like to be able to get a tool tip reminder when you hover over said items on this screen and maybe the possibility to 'save' ideal builds, similar to how the existing recipe system works.

I have already thoroughly enjoyed my time with this game and will look forward to the full release.

An enjoyable tower defence where you build the enemy path as you progress in waves, allowing for tactical placement of certain tiles in an attempt to use the maze to your advantage or not as the case may be.

Lots of out of level progress to be made plus the inclusion of Tournaments and modes to shake things up a little.

While I do find the progress to be a little like an incremental idle game, I really enjoyed my time with this and while tactics don't really change, challenging yourself with the perfect placement of towers, tiles and leveling towers has kept me coming back.

A sadly unimpressive Tower Defence that doesn't hit the right notes.

✅ Rockin' Concept.
✅ Cheap.
❌ Very limited gameplay.
❌ Repetitive.
❌ Main stage flashing is a bit over the top.

I really like the concept for this Tower Defence game, protecting a band from rabid fans, festival goers and the denizens of Hell with the power of rock! Or at least, the powerful blastwaves of the speakers.

Sadly, the execution falls short, clearly a result of using the wrong type of Axe. Maps are repetitive with little room for experimentation or varied towers outside of a few levels early waves that prove to be the main difficulty in achieving a Three Skull Rating for the levels. In mission Tower upgrades are unimpressive and there is no additional progression.

It's cheap and offers a ton of easy to achieve...achievements if that tickles your fancy. I also had a bit of a giggle by muting the music and sticking on some 90's pop to really rile up the crowd.

Chronically addictive tower defence!
An easy recommendation to fans of tower defence games.

✅ Engaging game play.
✅ Varied 'towers'.

❌ Very limited maps per season.
❌ Balancing issues.
❌ No single player content.

As a tower defence fan I can safely say that Guardian Chronicles dug it's claws in to me deep!
The core game play involves you choosing a roster of guardians that act as towers, each with their own skills and abilities and placing them on select tiles to thwart waves of enemies.

What makes Guardian Chronicles interesting and engaging is the merge system. To get more powerful towers you have to replace two matching towers of the same level together. The spanner in the works however, is the towers are drawn randomly from your pool of selected heroes but you see the next five draws allowing you to plan ahead. coupled with tower abilities based on positioning this helps keep games engaging from start to finish.

There are currently two modes available in the game and neither are for a single player. Co-op see's you working with an ally and their choice of towers to attempt to survive 50 waves and PvP puts you against an opponent - while you're both fighting against the same spawn of enemies, some towers can influence the field or the enemy units directly, such as stunning or putting them to sleep.

The game features the 'Gacha' method of obtaining new heroes and leveling them up via drawing enough cards from the games version of loot boxes or guardian 'draws' which can be both earned or bought for real money and while I will say there are balance issues involving certain heroes I've not been prevented from feeling like I'm progressing or competing in the game as a free to play player. If you stick at the game, you can top the charts should you desire!

A downside to the game is the selection of maps given for the season, which lasts over a month. There is only one map, per mode for a total of two to last you the entire month. While refining the roster of guardians you take into battle takes time and experimentation, the lack of variation does impact the enjoyment of the game somewhat. Random maps aren't the answer, due to having to 'plan' for the layouts ahead of time, so more modes/competitions perhaps with unique modifiers would be welcome.

As a free to play game, you've nothing to lose - Thank you for your time, I hope you enjoy the game and see you on the field!

Congratulations commander, your soldiers are the perfect recruits! Give them some cash, point them in the direction of the enemy and they'll charge headlong in to battle and shoot anything they see... what more could you want?

✅ Simple gameplay.
✅ Constant monitoring in battle.

❌ Quite short.
❌ Lacks information.

In Alien Hallway, you're in a tug of war against an alien enemy - both intent on destroying each others base. You do this by recruiting a range of soldiers with different weapons that unlock as you progress through the game, They'll march along a hallway to the enemy base as your enemy spawns minions that march towards you, only to clash in the middle, to the victor, progress!

It's a basic tug of war style game that doesn't require a great deal of strategy (or thinking!), but requires your constant engagement, recruiting new soldiers, resource harvesters and utilising grenades.

While there are 21 levels, there is not a whole lot of variation. Later levels see larger more formidable forces put against you, but apart from some aesthetic changes, the gameplay will remain the same from start to finish.

There is a distinct lack of information - no details on your troops or the enemies strengths and weaknesses and upgrading your units between battles simply increases their level (and presumably their health and damage), some trial and error is needed to find your ideal plan of attack. Mission rewards are quite low that sadly adds an unnecessary grind.

For a bargain price, it could entertain you for a few hours, but the game is quite basic and sadly doesn't get a recommendation from me.

An infectious simulation game, I prescribe a level a day in order to prevent addiction!

+ Constant state of progress.
+ Always something to be doing.
+ Charming visuals.

- Slightly repetitive.

Two Point Hospital is a charming throw back to Theme Hospital that really manages to hit all the right reflex points while managing to tickle the funny bones!

The simulation see's you acting as a hospital administrator in a variety of locations. Your job is to oversee the construction of rooms, placing equipment and amenities to be used to full effect, hire and train staff and cure the world of numerous, wacky ailments and conditions.

There is plenty to do and you'll get very little downtime, steadily progressing through a map and it's objectives. Upon reaching a 'One Star' Hospital rating, you'll be able to begin in a new location with even more challenges and new unlocks to help! These unlocks can then be used on earlier levels as you go for the 'Three Star' ratings.

There is some repetitiveness as the state of progression is often similar from level to level. [not helped by the lack of saving room blueprints or templates to speed up some item placements in rooms. - NOTE, I've yet to try them out, but the developers added Room Templates!] You can at least, copy and paste an existing room should you need more later.

Fiddling with optimal room placements, taking on tasks set by staff members, handling emergencies and participating in community events gives you plenty enough to do; then slap on some micromanagement of your staff and training the perfect employee rounds off the experience nicely.

After several hours with the game, I find it enjoyable to load up and get a star rating or attempt to achieve a goal during my playtime. You can even compete with Steam Friends attempting to one up each other on challenges.

It's a lovely game, well worth your time - and thank you for your time reading this review!

Early impressions are really good!

Nice, crisp visuals with a good attention to detail and some lovely effects.
Combat, while simplistic early on is an enjoyable top down affair.
Roaming stations taking on quests for people is relatively engaging with acceptable writing.

Looking forward to customising my ship and continuing the adventure, but wanted to post this as it seems the game could be quite a hidden gem.

Thank you for your time.

I'm not the biggest fan of DLC, but this grew on me.

I spent two hours cleaning up, only to spend another hour looking for the last christmas decoration that fell behind the bookshelf...

...and in the game.


Viscera Cleanup Detail see's you play the role of Janitor to the gruesome aftermath of Santa's breakdown at his Workshop. You'll rush around, cleaning up what is left of his little elf helpers with the help of very wriggly mop and some high tech cleaning gizmo's.

While it's not something I'll likely return to as the layout of the gruesome aftermath of Santa's rampage doesn't seem to change, the game kept me hooked cleaning up (and burning everything) I could find.

I can't actually believe how well it kept my attention, because of that, I think it gets a recommendation for those type of gamers who enjoy hunting down secrets, stealing everything in sight or obsessively cleaning!

☺ Everything an ARPG needs.
☺ Great environments.
☺ Nice soundtrack.

☹ Repetitive encounters.

An entertaining and enjoyable hack and slash, filled with loot, humour and atmosphere.

If you're not a fan of Action Roleplaying Games, The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing isn't going to be the game that changes your mind. However, if you're new to the genre or a fan of hack and slash loot fests, you're in luck! Van Helsing manages to provide an entertaining experience throughout its ten or so hour campaign (more so if you're an explorer like myself who likes to uncover all of the map).

You take on the role of the famous Van Helsing (well one of them, his son to be exact) as he and his companion the ghostly Lady Katarina attempt to save the day as monsters and science collide to bring about death and destruction upon Borgovia. You empower the great monster hunter and snappy ghost with a variety of skills from melee to ranged attacks and can even increase your attack power or versatility mid combat by powering up said abilities. Although an interesting attempt at creating options in combat, I will admit I hardly ever used said system myself, as I created a character who got his benefits from not using Rage, the resource that powers the stronger attacks.

The world itself is really well created with a lot of detail, creating a great mood as you hack and slash through groups of monsters. The encounters themselves are well balanced, but grow repetitive as you encounter the same groups of enemies again and again, a bit more variation in group makeup would have been welcome, but it's a slight issue rather than a deal breaker. Of course, the most important element for a game like this...the loot, is frequent and diverse. I was often switching over to newly acquired items or optimising my build.

I must admit, I really enjoyed playing the game. The grim world is lightened with a sprinkling of humour, especially the witty banter between Van Helsing and Lady Katarina throughout the game, which is well acted and entertaining. The game itself is also littered with cultural references, if something is clickable, its likely Van Helsing has something to say about it that'll bring a smile to your face. I also found myself really enjoying the music, while not overly diverse, it's rather lovely and fits the world well.

Listed under 'Main Features' is a section on building and developing traps to defend your lair. It's worth mentioning this is more of a brief distraction and isn't very deep. Those looking for a bit of tower defence in their ARPG might be a bit disappointed, despite the developers best intentions.

I really do recommend the game to fans of action roleplaying games or for someone that fancies a simple, yet entertaining story with a touch of humour and a great deal of sparkly objects bursting out of everything you touch.