Recent reviews by Scriptorum

"Have a nice slay!" the locals say.

Do you like magic? Because there's magic now. And monsters. Also dungeons. All three of these things are now in Hinterberg, a quaint Austrian town whose tourist trade has exploded because of these fantastical new attractions. You are one such visitor, hoping to fill your stamp book with all 25 dungeons completed. Your day is split into four slots:

1. In the morning there's usually a dialog to push forward the story.
2. In the afternoon you visit one of the biomes and pick a dungeon to explore.
3. For the evening you pick someone to socialize with.
4. And at night -- if you're smart -- you go straight to bed. But you could read or watch television if you were curious.

I found most of the combat and puzzles relatively straightforward, but still enjoyable. A few puzzles were head scratchers. A few fights were too hard and I had to come back later after getting better gear. Each biome has its own set of magic spells to leverage in order to escape the dungeons, giving each biome a distinctive flair. Instead of tackling a dungeon you can visit a scenic spot to rest and raise your skills. I liked the social aspect: you meet new locals and tourists, and you can decide who to spend time with. Each one has their own story to tell and benefits for interacting with them.

Of course there's something amiss in Hinterberg, which you find yourself caught in the middle of. What's the true meaning of magic, and why is it here? What is the mayor keeping secret? Which friends will you make and who will see you off at the train station when your trip ends? Will you go back to being a lawyer? And why can't I stab those german tourists wearing monster masks no matter how many times I try???

There are some action sequences. Notably in the winter biome you can summon a magic snowboard and ride the rails or do slalom trials. This game reminds me a bit of Sable, particularly the art style. It was a fun romp. Yes, I said romp. How often does one get to say romp? Romp. Romp romp romp. Now the word looks weird...

It's not the best factory game out there (that's Factorio), but it is the best in 3D. And it's still under development! Giant map with lots of verticality and hidden areas. Easy on the eyes. Many ways to get things (including yourself) from here to there. Unique terrain to explore while hunting slugs or hard drives. Lots of flexibility in base layout. Not really a survival game; no sleeping; eat to increase your health but it'll do that slowly on its own. There are creatures to encounter, and some of them (see giant spiders) can be exciting to fight, especially when you unlock the cluster bombs. :) Death just means you leave a death crate. There are bugs, sometimes the crates fall into an abyss or dead area. Connections can sometimes be tricky. Managing ratios and preventing bottlenecks is harder than it needs to be. The tiering means some stuff you want to play with will take time to unlock, but if you like goals, there they are! In summary, prepare to lose a ton of sleep.

You are a terraformer! Of planets! Well, of one particular planet, and it's kind of a crappy pile of rock, but it's yours. Well it's not really yours, and the corporation who sponsors your presence sends you periodic emails to remind you of that.

It's starts out like a survival sim. You're sort of fond of food, water, and air, none of which is in great supply. Not that death is an issue, you drop half your stuff into a magic box you can retrieve at your convenience. The exploration is fun. Initially it's about your limited oxygen supply, and building air stations to extend your range. However, it's a static map (with the exception of a late game portal to procedural wrecks), so after you see some of the pretty sights you aim for agility boots, jetpacks, and teleporters that will let you get around faster.

And then you get to the business of turning this hunk of garbage planet into a livable place. The best thing about Planet Crafter is observing the changes you make to the planet. Rain, lakes, blue sky, breathable atmosphere, moss, trees, butterflies, frogs, fish, mammals. If that doesn't appeal to you, this isn't for you. It doesn't happen immediately, so there are these moments when you realize hey this is a lake now, or woah look at all the trees that popped up here.

There is backstory about a precursor race, and three endings (all of them depressing). And there's a goodly amount about base building, because you need places to put stuff. All in all, I had a good time.

This is Assassin's Creed: Irishman in France featuring GTA, but I guess that name was taken. Harken, my friends, back to 2009 where they invented not only Bitcoin and the Swine Flu, but also this Parisian WWII resistance simulator. Sure, you can climb most buildings, steal any car, and set explosives which explode as you are casually walking away, yeah, but can you strip a Nazi soldier down to his underwear and steal his pants? Yes, yes you can. There's also some car racing, a story with a love quadrilateral, and a fair number of anti-aircraft guns that can be trained downward and used to shoot German observation posts and fuel tanks. All in all, a fnarkin good time.

This is a coming-of-age exploration and climbing game. The game world is interesting. Puberty comes with the ability to glide, so before you choose your mask and therefore your career, you leave your village and go for a little sci-fi Rumspringa. You meet lots of people, go on quests, and upgrade your bike and your personal abilities. You see a lot of things in the distance and wonder "can I climb up there?" and the answer -- if not "yes" -- is "give it a shot!" There are puzzles and backstory elements that tell you about life on this planet and how what came before. Not all quests and achievements and collectible elements are interesting; I was particularly bored with sand fishing. But overall I enjoyed the being immersed in the world. Not a single time was I harmed by a sweet baby.

Fight vampires or be a vampire. Probably both. A roguelike in the truest turn-based sense, you ascend the steps of the Golden Krone, encountering various creatures, ne'er-do-wells, and other treasure hunters. Coolest thing about being vampire: lopping up blood pools to heal. Coolest thing about the sun: it casts rays through the stained glass that move as the day progresses, killing vampires dumb enough to be overtaken by it (sometimes that's you). Coolest thing about potions: they're unidentified at first, but you're a dabbling alchemist so you have some idea what a potion COULD do (either heal me or explode, screw it I'm drinking it). Coolest thing about the magic system: Only humans can cast spells, and often you can choose between learning a new spell, improving an existing spell, or just gaining mana. Coolest thing about the map: it's not linear, you can dead end up a tower or find the stairs to the sewer. Underrated gem if you're a roguephile.

I'm trying to figure out the psychology of the fans. Not you guys, but the little people in the game. They really like the Bloody Rally Show so they go to see the Bloody Rally Show in person. By doing so, they likely get smeared on the asphalt by this top-down bad driving simulator. This is what makes the show bloody, fans spraying arterial blood so they can be part of the production. Are they suicidal? Maybe they don't think they'll be the ones who get run over? Well anyhow, that's the game. This is neither Carmaggedon nor Twisted Metal. Sure there is a bit of a story and car customization, but it really comes down to do you like drifting all over the roads making people splat. I thought, hey, that's me! I might be the guy who likes drifting and killing folks! But I tired rather quickly of the car physics, and entrails can only entertain me for so long.

This is the best game involving Roombas, hands down. It's a survival game. Parts go bad, you need new parts, you need fuel, so you send your drones out into spacecraft whose original owners have been long since smeared on the walls. If you play like me, a session of Duskers goes like this: explore a ship, encounter a foe, my scout drone gets attacked by some creepy foe, expend most of my remaining drones trying to rescue the first drone. High tail it towards the space dinghy with my final drone in a dramatic chase/retreat involving numerous typos. It's also a mystery game, slowly piecing together the many ways in which the human race went almost completely extinct. It's also a strategy game, as there are usually several approaches you can use to manage the threat. The interface is mostly textual, but somehow still manages to be immersive. Would love to see a squel! You'll always remember the first time you depressurize a room and send those bastards out of the airlock...

Your spaceship is cramped and there's entirely too much banjo. DO NOT BUY. Oh, you're still here? Well if that didn't scare you off, I guess you might like the exploration, story, and puzzles. I suppose. Your species is getting into space exploration and hoo boy there are some things you find. You get a space ship which you can fly around and walk in (I did say it was cramped), and that in itself is fun. You discover the history of your civilization and a precursor race, and that's all very interesting. You're trapped in an anomalous event you don't understand and gradually piece together why that is and what it means, and that is fascinating. You discover something about the nature of the universe that drops your jaw. Well, at least I dropped mine, and sat there a few minutes processing the implications. Wow. As I said, if you dislike cramped spaceships and banjo, do not buy.

I liked the visuals quite a bit: disturbing, intricate, and artistic. Comparisons to HR Giger are not unwarranted. I'll also give props for the world building, it's deliciously nightmarish and somewhat immersive. So if those things are super important to you, maybe you ignore the rest of my review and get the game. But the gameplay ... was ... awful. I don't mind puzzles, and they were fairly thematic, but the pace is agonizingly slow. The reviews that call this a walking simulator are fair. And the combat -- ugh. This is not one of those games where you feel like a bad ass, it's more like "something bad crawled up your ass and lives there now." I get how this fits the theme but at a certain point I've got better things to do with my time. I got to this one stage where I'm fighting several creatures that bare a striking resemblance to Jerry's Mytholog from Rick and Morty, armed only with a pneumatic tongue depressor, getting killed over and over, and I had to step away for a while. When I returned I found I had no desire to resume the experience.