Recent reviews by plk Lesiak

I've spent a good portion of my childhood messing around in Star Wars Rebellion/Supremacy and was waiting a while for something new to scratch that itch. That ancient game had some serious flaws, but also had incredible strategic depth for its time and tons of atmosphere. Empire At War, while very similar in some aspects, was a bit disapponting to me, not capturing the same feeling of scale and complexity, even if it was still an enjoyable RTS in its own right. The Forces of Curruption expansion improved that to some extent, feeling like a more complete and varied experience, but still didn't fully replace Rebellion in my heart.

However, the reason why you should check out Empire at War today is not what the basic game offers, it is the incredible wealth of mods that make the game feel modern and pretty much unmatched in scale when it goes to space combat (the only comparison I can think of being Battlefleet Gothic Armada 2). Thrawn's Revenge and Fall of the Republic in particular are amazing conversions that make the galaxy-scale war feel properly epic and challenging, while polishing the visuals and the UI to not feel dated. These are some of the best space strategy experiences available, and include pretty much all I even wanted from a Star Wars strategy game. And for the cost of only buying into this cheap old game... There's basically no reason not to check them out.

Before I say anything else, I have to mention I did not encounter technical issues that pop up for many other players, meaning any bugs or instability did not affect my experience (outwide of when I was using mods, but that comes with the territory).

So, while I think the first game was a massive dud gameplay-wise, while mostly nailing the easthetic and atmosphere of 40k, this one takes the positive parts and pairs them with a sprawling, deep campaign and a deeply customizable experience. You can tweak the difficulty of both real-time battles and the turn-based empire management to a massive degree, so the rather-handcore and at times tedious nature of vanilla gameplay doesn't have to hold you back.

When it goes to battles, all factions have a distinct gameplay style and require a specific approach to fight them efficiently. There's a lot of micro management and inteligent fleet composition required if you want anything beyond phyrric victories and it's intensely satisfying to pull off a decisive win. The scale of the campaign means the game might become slightly tedious by the end, as you don't really encounter new and interresting challenges after a while, but if this kind of highly methodical, slow-paced space combat is something you find appealing, you'll easily find dozens of hours of quality enjoyment in this game. And if you're a Warhammer fan, the spectacle and feel of the universe is really well done. Flawed, but still highly recommended.

I kind of wish there was a "mixed" option, but in the end, I have to be honest and my experience weighted towards the negative. 80's Overdrive is a cool idea, looks and sounds nice, but is spoiled by poorly developed mechanics, like:

* All races have entry fees, meaning you can lock yourself from continuing the game if you spend everything and don't place high enough in a race, leaving you with no money to retry. The game autosaves, so this effectively bricks your playthrough. There's absolutely no point to this mechanic, or at least none I can identify. You can't even sell old cars to get back on track.
* Cars are just skins, as you can upgrade every car to max possible performance. This makes buying more than two cars (if you want a backup in case you wreck your main one and can't afford repair fees) completely pointless and a waste of money. It also means there's no actual variety of driving experience.
* Gas and repairs are prohibitively expensive and makes you grind easy, boring races to progress.
* Traffic and police behaviour are illogical and annoying, often making you rely on luck more than skill, with traffic changing lanes wildly and police ramming you from behind with often no chance of dodging.

The end result feels just so unbalanced and half-cooked. Even for a small indie project like this, I can't look past all of it. At first, this felt like a nice little time-waster, but beyond nostalgia-bait, it really offers very little and sabotages itself in ways that literal 80s games never did. Quite a shame.

This is a nice short story, but a somewhat uneven one. The main concept is very well realized, with pretty colorful prose and a rather obvious, but emotionally impacful mystery. You might not have much of a problem guessing who the Red Queen is, but the real meaning of that answer and the emotional burden it places on the main characters is still interesting to explore. The game also doesn't go overboard with violent deaths and dead ends, staying pretty focused on delivering the plot – it's overall a prety nice-looking and reasonably enjoyable package to consume in one or two sittings.

My only complaint is that the core story, outside of being a horror twist on "Alice in Wonderland" lore, is primarily romance and while this very much works in White Queen's arc, the love story in the Hatter's route comes pretty much out of nowhere and doesn't feel as genuine. The whole VN would be better if it focused on the White Queen more and left the Hatter as a supporting character, as she's still has an important role to play due to her history with the Red Queen. Of course, you can always just focus on reading White Queen's side of the VN and for the price of $0.00, there's really no reason not to if this kind of story is even vaguely within your taste. Recommended for GxG romance fans above all, but alkso for anyone who enjoys a solid short story.

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A very good concept, nicely stylized art, good voice acting for the Jester, a nice variety of endings – for a free game, everything is very solid here.

The only downside is that it's TINY, like below 15 minutes to complete. Would love to see this story expanded to a full experience, but as a short distraction... It's ok.

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PS If you're interested in quality visual novels, check out my curator page

Dreamy Planet is a very ebi-hime kind of visual novel, both harsh and nostalgic, and it doesn’t go easy on the reader. The protagonist, Haruka, is a person that reached a dead end in her life… Or maybe even worse, set herself on a road straight to endless misery. Depressed, jobless and in a loveless relationship, she meets up with her long-estranged childhood friend, Shiira, and is brought to a defunct theme park they spent their time in as children – the titular Dreamy Planet. From there on, the story explores Haruka’s utterly miserable mental state and the unresolved emotions lingering between her and Shiira – all among the somewhat-decrepit scenery that echoes main characters’ lost happiness.

The story, as frustrating as it sometimes becomes, definitely rings true – even if you can’t fully relate to Haruka, you probably will find familiar elements in her struggles, and instinctively know that people like her, following expectations of those around them and unable to find a path in life that would bring them happiness, do exist. Ebi does not pull her punches when it goes to showcasing how troubled the protagonist is, but there’s a certain kind of satisfaction to be had from both the quality of the writing and the new layers of her and Shiina’s relationship that the VN slowly uncovers (I won't say more to avoid spoilers).

The character art is average, with not an amazing amount of detail and slightly flat colouring. Where the game shines the most is the detailed environments of the abandoned amusement park… But at the same time, their photo-realistic style clashes slightly with the simple anime sprites. The opening sequence and well-stylized UI are nice touches showing the typical amount of polish ebi’s projects receive – still, the art is not very memorable here and feels purely supplementary to the writing.

The music is a bit eccentric even considering ebi’s tendency for experimentation – the hectic electronic tracks do a good job of underlining the protagonist’s anxiety, but are quite relentless and tend to feel out of place in more scenic, nostalgic or intimate moments. At the hour’s mark they started feeling more distracting than complimentary to the story, so I switched to running my own selection of angsty j-pop songs in the background… Still, I wouldn’t call any part of the soundtrack bad, just a bit too harsh and monotonous for the story it accompanies.

In conclusion, I think Dreamy Planet is a really worthwhile experience, reminding me a bit of ebi’s early freeware projects – doing a great job of tackling a heavy subject and exploring the experience of depression and loss without falling into either hopelessness or naive optimism. In a sense though, it’s more of a solid short story than a great visual novel, with the music and art slightly missing the mark in my experience. Maybe I’m just spoiled by how incredibly many other of ebi’s VNs come together to become more than the sum of their parts… But in the end, I still enjoyed myself and suggest everyone that can handle the heavy topics Dreamy Planet is centered around to give it a chance.

Oh, and please download the 18+ patch. Most of the time I don’t find erotic content in VNs that compelling, but in this case, not only the sex scene is tasteful and well-written, but above all, I think it’s crucial for the story.

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So, I'll just drop it here for anyone considering whether to download this – the sex scene isn't overly explicit, and I find it tasteful and well-written. What's more, while it's inserted in a way that possibly won't make you notice its absence in the all-ages version, it's actually very meaningful for Haruka's and Shiina's relationship, focusing a lot more on their emotions than on physical details. Usually I consider erotic content in VNs skippable, but this is an exception – I think it adds a lot story-wise, on top of being a really nice sex scene. :)

While the first VN in this series was a glimpse of mental illness and the struggle of functioning with your mind working against you at every step, this one is a deeper, more complex look into madness. Surreal, suffocating and full of symbolism, "Milk outside..." is maybe not a masterpiece I would shout about to the whole world, but it expands very well on the style and story of its prequel. We have higher-quality visuals, but with a similar retro feel, colour pallet and surreal distortion. We have similarly chaotic dialogue, but expanded and showing us a lot more about the main character's experiences and way of thinking. We once again have an excellent, unsettling soundtrack.

Strangely enough, the main thing limiting the experience stays the same – it's still too short and too much of a small vignette to be a fully satisfying story. It touches upon a lot of topics, shows us symptoms of uncontrolled mental illness and trauma, but can't do more than that within its limited form. Every scene and every alternative ending is, admittedly, a piece of a very interesting puzzle, but one that doesn't produce any kind of complete, satisfying picture – and surely not one that suggests a clear path or hope for the future. All of this is less a major complaint though and more just something to consider when approaching this game – while "Milk outside..." is an extremely climatic experience and one full of symbolism, it'll likely leave you wanting more. And outside of the clunky interface that makes replaying the game for alternative endings a bit of a chore, this is the only vaguely negative thing I can say about it. Overall, highly recommended.

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A little game that definitely deserves its notoriety. The creepy sound design, lo-fi graphics and abstract dialogue all work together extremely well to create an unsettling climate and play well into the theme of mental illness. As saying anything more would be unnecessary spoilers, simply check out both this game and its much more complex sequel if you like this kind of mind-screw horror experience.

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This concept could've been done in a few interesting ways but... It's not where Kidnapped Girl goes. It's too short and too shallow to be a proper romance story, but tries to be one regardless. It doesn't go far enough to be truly unsettling or suspenseful, regardless of your choices. It also won't satisfy people who are into BDSM as it doesn't commit to the theme in any meaningful way and has very little that could be described as erotic content (what is there is very vanilla and text-only).

It's pretty much a nothing game that serves as little more than a short distraction. The only real positives are the nice-looking art and decent (Russian) voice acting for the girl. Whether that's enough for you... It's for you to decide. At least you won't be risking anything more than ~30 minutes of your time, but I still don't recommend it.

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PS If you're interested in quality visual novels, check out my curator page