Recent reviews by python-b5

I went into this expecting a pretty average Lethal Company clone, but this game actually managed to differentiate itself nicely. The physics-based gameplay really changes how the item collection feels (it's not about inventory management anymore, like Lethal Company was), and the enemy avoidance side of the game is more stealth-oriented, which is neat. The fighting minigame at the end of a run is interesting, and helps keep the tone light after a difficult run, and a potentially frustrating loss.

Some criticisms, though:
- Most of the enemies are dealt with in the exact same way: hide under a table and wait for them to leave the room. Sometimes you'll get lucky and never see them again after that. Other times, they can be really annoying and stick around camping you for a while, which is quite frustrating.
- In general, I don't find the enemies in the game right now to be all too interesting. There's not as much variety as you see in Lethal Company or Content Warning. Some enemies are hardly a threat at all (Gnome, Spewer), while some will kill you in one hit (Huntsman), forcing you to wait for them to leave and halting the pace of the game. Some specific enemies have design flaws, too, like the Upscream being able to softlock you if it happens to catch you near unfortunately shaped level geometry.
- The physics-based item carrying can become frustrating - mostly with especially large items, where it's incredibly difficult to fit them through the fairly cramped maps without bumping them against the walls constantly and reducing their value. You could say this is just part of the game's challenge, but it does sometimes make the game more frustrating than fun. At the very least, dragging objects across the ground should not be nearly as liable to damage them; it feels pretty unfair as-is and doesn't make sense physically either.
- Item distribution can be quite inconsistent. Sometimes, a room will have loot scattered everywhere, while other times, you'll find absolutely nothing and will have wasted your time. It would be nice if things were more even.
- Because there's no time limit like in Lethal Company, there's no incentive to ever put yourself in danger. The optimal strategy is to wait for enemies to leave you alone, no matter how long it takes (and it can sometimes take an irritatingly long time!). I think some kind of time limit would be a good idea to promote occasionally playing in a riskier way.
- The levels start to drag after a while, especially once there are three/four extraction points. A time limit would also help with this.
- It's nice that you can respawn other players partway through a round, but it doesn't completely alleviate the problem of having to wait around doing nothing after you die. It was never a big problem in Lethal Company, where the days are short and you can even vote to leave early if necessary, but in R.E.P.O., without a time limit, you can be stuck for ages waiting for a teammate to finish the next extraction point. Plus, if they don't manage to bring your head with them (or, as happened to me once, your head fell in a pit), you don't get to respawn at all. I don't consider it very fun to sit for 10 minutes watching my teammate silently and slowly collect loot. I'm not sure how this problem could be resolved, but as it stands I think it is the biggest issue I have with the game right now.
- Guns are nearly completely useless right now. This isn't really that big of an issue, I just thought I should mention it. You can barely hit anything even a moderate distance away from you. It's kind of funny, actually.

It's easy to compare R.E.P.O. and Lethal Company, as I've done here quite a bit, but they are decently different games that focus on different things. I really love the physics-based gameplay of R.E.P.O., and while it still could stand to be improved, I do think I prefer it to the inventory management of Lethal Company. It's just more engaging.

On the other hand, I much prefer the macro design of Lethal Company. Being able to choose the moon you go to is interesting, and I really like how the fixed outdoors maps are juxtaposed with the random interiors. The game overall has a sense of place that I don't feel R.E.P.O. does. R.E.P.O. feels more abstract and gameplay-focused; I don't really feel like I'm in much of a defined world, especially when I'm suddenly dropped into a blatantly Harry Potter-inspired castle. There's nothing objectively wrong about R.E.P.O.'s approach, but the game's environments and setting don't stand out to me.

I do also prefer Lethal Company's quota system to R.E.P.O.'s level-by-level structure. While death can be devastating in Lethal Company, it doesn't necessarily mean your run is instantly over. If you die early in a quota, there's still a chance to build back up and keep the run going. R.E.P.O. just ends things immediately. Lethal Company's quotas also allow skilled players to build up a surplus of scrap to make later parts of the run easier. While R.E.P.O. does let you extract more items than required to gain extra profit, the benefit gained by doing so is nowhere near what you get by saving scrap in Lethal Company. As long as you survive the level, you're probably fine, and will still have made plenty of money. Plus, because there's no time limit, getting all the items in a level is a matter of patience, and not necessarily skill. Getting everything on a moon in Lethal Company, on the other hand, is extremely difficult - but you're rewarded for your effort.

Honestly, they're both good games. I like both a lot more than Content Warning. I'm not sure Lethal Company would work with R.E.P.O.'s physics-based item collection, and I'm not sure R.E.P.O. would work with Lethal Company's structure. They're both worth playing - you may like one more than the other, or like both for different reasons. I feel I've been a bit harsh in this review, but I tend to do that with games I enjoy. I want to see this game become the best it can possibly be.

Overall, I'd recommend R.E.P.O., though with only three maps and not a ton of enemy variation, I don't think it has nearly as much replay value as Lethal Company does. Considering this is in Early Access right now, though, this is a very strong start. I'm interested to see how this game develops moving forward; the devlogs Semiwork have released over the last few weeks have made me really confident in the game's future, and I'm excited for what's to come. If you've grown bored with Lethal Company and want something similar (and maybe a bit goofier), definitely give this a try.

I put off playing this game for far too long. I knew I was going to like it, and I was right. While I wasn't the hugest fan of the item combination puzzles (which, funnily enough, almost ceased to exist by the end of the game), and while I think some of the meta stuff earlier in the game felt a little clunky and more on the gimmicky side (later in the game it got much better, though!), the story won me over and the game as a whole was a great experience. The art and music was also excellent. I had some small compatibility issues with the clover program in the Tower, but that's not really the developers' fault, and it wasn't enough to stop me from finishing the game. This game is short and relatively inexpensive, so I figure if you're interested in this type of thing there's no reason not to give it a try.

This is definitely my favourite of the We Were Here series, feeling a lot more polished than the ones before it. I liked the deeper focus on story and how said story played into many of the puzzles. The puzzles themselves also were very well-thought out, with the Nautilus section standing out to me specifically. I definitely recommend this game, though you should play the other games first (they're all fantastic).

Ending spoilers:
The one part of the game I wasn't particularly fond of was the ending, since compared to the previous games the sacrifice felt somewhat contrived (I get the Titanic reference, but we clearly could have stalled until the boat arrived). It just sort of felt unsatisfying after everything leading up to it. I feel it could have been handled better.

Short and sweet. I actually think this was the perfect length; I don't believe the concept would scale very well if expanded to fill a larger game. That doesn't make the game bad, though. I liked it a lot. The puzzles were consistently interesting, if a little easy, and the twist slowly revealed throughout the game was really neat. While this game is very short, it's well worth the asking price.

I don't usually play visual novels, but this was an exception I was more than willing to make. I've only played through the game once (so far), but the story, and just how reactive to every choice it is, is remarkable. Trust me, play this game. The only issue with it is having to wait for the rest of it to come out :(

I took 10 hours to beat this game but I think I'm just exceptionally bad at it. It probably won't take other people that long.

This is a very fun game. It controls fluidly, the level design is mostly very good, and the graphics and music are great (though I wish there was more music! There's only a few tracks, and they're all really good). It really perfects making you feel nervous when playing. Some negative reviews here have said the game gets unfairly difficult above 300m; I don't think this is the case personally (those last 200m were indeed much harder, but also my favorite part of the game!), though. The game is usually fair with its difficulty and only has a few spots I found irritating.

The one mechanic I don't like in the game is the head-hitter ice jumps that appear towards the end. I know they were a thing in Minecraft, but they stand out to me in a game like this where all the challenges are usually pretty consistent once you get used to them. These jumps are very counter-intuitive, and I was only able to figure out how to do them properly by asking on the game's Discord server (the solution was crouch walking while scroll jumping to build up speed, then releasing crouch and timing a jump at the end of the ice). Luckily, a lot of these jumps are located in sections where you have a floor under you and won't fall very far if you miss them, but there are a few of them above gigantic falls that take 5-10 minutes to recover from, wasting a lot of time.

On the other hand, I think the water mechanic is super underused. It only appears a few times, but definitely has a lot of potential for interesting level design. I wish it had been used more instead of the ice, honestly. Luckily, it may be added to the level editor so we might see some custom levels using it in the future.

Another small criticism I have for this game is the vertigo system. I think it's a cool idea, and the individual horror-esque sequences (I say horror-esque because they aren't especially scary and don't seem to really be trying to be) are quite well done. The issue with this system is that in addition to when you look up and down, vertigo is also gained when you leap over a gap with a long fall below it. I don't mind the sound effect that plays when this happens--I like that it makes these jumps feel a bit more dramatic--but a decent amount of vertigo is gained from this, and it ticks down really, really slowly. So if you want to avoid the panic attack / horror sequences (which you'll want to do because they can last almost two minutes), you have to stop and wait for your vertigo to reach a safer amount, which hurts the flow of the game. Apparently you can disable these sequences entirely by turning off music in the settings, but I really like the music so I don't want to do that. I would probably do it for speedruns. EDIT: You can now disable these sequences in the settings, so problem solved.

Overall, though, this game is great. If you like Minecraft parkour or jump maps in Source games you'll definitely like this too. It's absolutely worth the price, and custom levels have also recently been added so there's even more value now.

Extremely polished and very fun. I'm very bad at it

Mixolumia is a polished and very fun puzzle game (i.e. Tetris, Dr. Mario). The graphics are simple but beautiful and the gameplay is relaxing (though it can get quite challenging!). The reactive soundtrack also adds a lot to the experience. Definitely pick this up if you like other games in the genre.

This game, and all the new content in it, is directly targeted towards those who have already played and enjoyed The Stanley Parable; it's almost like an epilogue for it. Don't get me wrong, this is fantastic and worth your money, but don't expect the new content to be exactly like the original game. Hilarious as always, though!

Spoilers ahead:

The large majority of the content is linear, and you start it as soon as you pass through the "New Content" door. This game sort of has a campaign, and it's split into a few segments. By the time you get to the last one, the main game is re-unlocked and the ability to carry a bucket is enabled, which alters any ending you bring it to (though the degree to which the ending is modified drastically varies; some are completely changed, and others just have slightly modified dialogue). These bucket endings don't add a ton of content to the game (only an hour or so), but they're a fun addition to the package.

Without the bucket, all the endings are mostly unmodified except the Games Ending, which has had its games switched from Minecraft and Portal to Firewatch and Rocket League. While the new version of the ending is still fun, it's a shame the original couldn't be included in this game (assuming there were licensing or porting issues with the old games).


The main portion of the new content takes a few hours to complete, and it took me six to see what I believe is 100% of what was added to the game. Whether this is worth it to you depends on how much you liked the original. If you don't own the 2013 game, this is the easiest recommendation of my life; the amount of content including that from the original release is huge. However, if you have played the original, this would probably only be worth it for you if you really liked the game and wanted more, though the 33% off does help.

LOVE 3 is a simple and well-designed platformer with a great soundtrack. It includes the other games in the series as well, so it's a very good deal. Highly recommended.