Recent reviews by SilverFolfy

This game actually has a sad story with a silver lining to it.
Initially it was meant to be a mix of puzzle gameplay and multiplayer mmo style open world exploration.
You could see other players prancing about solving puzzles and showing off their character and skins, but could not really interact with them in any meaningful way, it was just "cosmetic" levels of jolly togetherness.
The gameplay consist of exploring a frankly beautiful open world filled to the brim with puzzles to solve and rewards to earn. In that sense it is slightly similar to The Witness, but the puzzles are (mostly) not as hard. There are quite a lot of diverse puzzle types though!

But, you see, the online part was eventuall shut down less than 8 months after release, I presume because sales numbers weren't stellar and running an MMO-style server infrastructure for a pay-once game wasn't feasible in the long term, I cannot really blame them.
I only tried the demo before launch and came back a year or so later, so this came as a surprise to me.
But, what they did before shutting down surprised me even more, they patched the game to be playable completely offline! This is actually really nice of them, Ubisoft would've just pulled the plug...
This here feels like the "Stop Killing Games" initiative in action, when devs actually care what happens with their game's legacy.
Granted, the offline-only mode does have it's issues and it's not perfect, BUT as is often the case, there is a fan mod available that fixes most of the shortcomings and bugs and also adds some cut content back, I love this!
See here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/2071500/discussions/0/4629230582747983465/
Installation is very easy, and can be done whenever, it is fully compatible to just add and remove at any point without losing anything.

With the fan mod installed, this is still a great game and I can recommend it (especially if you have ADHD because it tickles my fidgety brain just right).
Though you might want to wait for a sale.

Due to me having absolutely loved games like The Witness, Outer Wilds, Talos Principle and many more exploration puzzlers with meta-secrets, and this game getting so much praise there was no way around trying it out.

This is hard for me to accept, but I don't think this game is for me, and it's not the games fault at all.
It looks nice, plays nice and has no issues whatsoever, but I just bounced off after a few hours.

I've read that it just takes time to get into and sometimes the RNG to be on your side, but I very soon discovered that the mechanic that makes this game unique (the roguelite RNG element mixed into the mystery puzzle) does not sit right with me.
This is maybe why I loved the aforementioned puzzle games so much, but I always shied away from games with roguelite or even roguelike mechanics. My brain hates repetition and RNG as a progression mechanic, at least when I have to actively play the whole time.
I cannot get warm with the idea of just trying again and again with this game, hoping to get the next pieces of the meta-puzzle.

Looking at some other folk's achievements for this game from my friendslist and forums, it seems I am not the only one with this "issue".
There are mentions of mods to "fix" these kinds of problems for some people (for example infinite re-rolls or steps etc.) but for me this feels like cheating because it alters the gameplay in a way the developers didn't intend the game to be played and makes some mechanics obsolete. For some people these mods have re-invigorated their love for this game though, so I might try that at some point, but for now I think I'll just let it sit in my library, waiting for the day to be picked up again.

TL;DR: Game is great, but just doesn't click with me, which is nobodies fault really, so I will still give it a thumbs up.
If you are one of the lucky ones where the RNG mechanics and repetition aren't an issue for you and the game clicks with your brain chemistry, then I do think you might have a blast with it.

I'm positively surprised by this game, it really scratches that unique itch of wanting to explore incomprehensibly big megastructures.
This genre is actually growing very well as of late, with very good options already available like "NaissanceE", "Babbdi", "Venineth", "Metal Garden", the more well known "Stray", and many more I haven't played yet.

It handles the exploration part as a semi-nonlinear experience, you may go whereever you want to progress.
Part of the fun stems from the fact that you will be hopelessly lost in the beginning, just stumbling around randomly, until you build up a sort-of mental map of the areas.
There are (mostly) no invisible walls, no clear demarcations of what is an area intended to be reached and what is out of bounds.
I've had a blast just climbing around, sometimes very clearly out of bounds, just to see what's there. Sometimes this leads to discovering very interesting areas with nothing in it, other times I actually found some small "eastereggs" or a savepoint in the middle of "nowhere". It's just nice to be able to reach them.

There is an interwoven story than unfolds with multiple characters, and multiple endings to discover.
I half expected the story to be overly pretentious but it's actually not bad.

The game uses Unreal Engine and so it plays around heavily with ligthing effects and massive environments, usually with UE5 this comes at a heavy performance cost, but I'm happy to report it runs very well on 4070 Ti Super with over 120 FPS at max settings and 1440p, without hitching or framedrops.
So using the features of UE5 to create gorgeous environments that are still running well can clearly be done if the devs care enough.
Only some slight visual glitches are unavoidable that are inherent to UE5 and it's Lumen lighting: Slow "flickering/shimmering" light on surfaces that are in darker environments and don't get much light.
Also some ghosting of smaller details when turning the camera quickly. In this instance it is acceptable though as it doesn't happen that often.

Some points that I really dislikes, but thankfully can be easily solved in options:
Control with mouse is heavily smoothed by default which makes controlling the camera feel very sluggish, can be turned off though.
A "cinematic mode" is enabled by default, which puts black bars on the top and bottom of the screen. For me this did nothing other than annoy me, but thankfully can be turned off as well, with a sigh of relief from me.

Other than these small nitpicks, the game looks gorgeous and plays well, and is underscored by some atmospheric music tracks which I have already integrated into my music library.

Can fully recommend, and I cannot wait for the DLC that's yet to come.

Oof, I had high hopes for this one, since I do like me some chill and/or detective games, especially with a furry theme, but sadly I have to give this one a thumbs down.

The positives first:
The main plot is pretty interesting... buut only up to a certain point where it just went to "WHAT THE F***?"-levels kind of weirdness in a few minutes.
Some plot points do have some weighty drama to them, in a kind of bittersweet way. It's nice that is not completely super-cozy through and through.
The details of the world, areas and decorations are nice to look at, it feels very like a scenic Italy trip, props to the level designers!
Chill music / nice ambiance sounds
Runs well, no technical issues encountered (except for some issues in cooking minigame, more on that below)

And well... that's basically all positives I can write...

Neutral (since personal preference):
Furry theme is nice (being a furry myself, who would've guessed)
BUT with very unrealistic body proportions that are very offputting, sadly that's often the case with "cozy" vibe games (way too big heads and eyes, too small arms/legs, etc) while the 2D character portraits look good.

Negative:
The detective puzzles are not deduction based at all, they are turn-based "boardgames" that are winnable purely by trial and error, which is very unsatisfying. Instead of "Nice, I cracked the case with logic and brainpower!" moments this rather leads to "Thank f*** I'm finally done with that!" moments and leave you drained afterwards. Around the last third I've given up on finding the "solutions" myself and just input the right combinations from a guide.

There are Joker cards you can use to make the "boardgames" easier, BUT they are also used as a currency used to buy stuff in a shop. That means the more jokers you use the less stuff you can buy. This effectively discourages anyone from ever using them since that would mean fewer are available as currency. Bad game design choice!

Most characters are not very likeable or relateable, and certainly too shallow. Most don't even make a 3D appearence, only talk via 2D avatars when knocking on their door. This makes the world feel very empty and lifeless.

Minigames have horrible control issues and for a "cozy" game are partially waaay to unforgiving, seems to me they weren't playtested and polished enough. Most do get easier by playing with mouse and keyboard, even though controller is explicitely recommended... wut?
Examples:
- The "waitress" minigame is causing my hand to cramp because all inputs have to be done with the D-Pad on controller with multiple inputs per second for a good 3+ minutes straight. Way easier with keyboard, but the last two levels are still very tough.
- Cooking minigame is borderline sadistic with controller, barely passable with KB (seems to be less buggy and more forgiving). With controller some prompts just bug out completely sometime leading to a "Mistake!" immediately. And the reward for cooking? Nothing, zilch, nada. Not even a reaction worth mentioning from the character or companions, even if their favorite food was made to perfection.
Oh, and decided to abort cooking because the minigame is just getting on your nerves? Well, you can't! There is NO abort option, you're stuck in an endless loop until you make it, good luck!
- The arcade game (shooter game) is nearly impossible with controller because the reticle moves so slowly, and when sped up it's too imprecise. But with mouse and keyboard it's an absolute breeze.
- Marble minigame, skipping stones, stargazing and fishing are alright though.
- Generally this all feels too "tacked on", since there isn't really anything you get out of it.

And a quick round of the rest of negative points:
- Quicktravel options around town are sorely missing, most of the time spent is running from A to B to C to D and back again
- Many things that seem tacked on chores, i.e. buy all plants, books, etc just to collect them. -> means grinding for money.
- Character relationship building? Yeah thats just: 1) Getting a list of chores to do, 2) Get the character to follow you, 3) Do the chores, 4) Wait a day, 5) Get a new list of chores, 6) Repeat
- Don't know where someone specific lives? Tough luck, it's not catalogued anywhere, hopefully you have a questmarker!
- The option for "always enable running" in options menu resets with every game reload, even thought it is still set, so you have to re-set it every time.

Conclusion:
I've now sunk more hours into this game than I'd like and am shelving it for now since it is just not fun grinding out the rest of it for achievements, it would be a waste of time.
The story, being mostly grounded and somewhat believeable for most of the game, has taken such a drastic turn into "WTF" territory right at the end that killed all my remaining curiosity.
Not happy that it came to this, I'd loved to give it a more positive review, but I just couldn't. Even if the game is furry themed which I really like, I have to stay true to myself in terms of all the other things.
The negatives just outweigh the positives by a lot.

This is a great "self-contained" little experience, a small-scale "space opera" resource gathering and construction game with a sprinkle of tower defense. Polished and with interesting mechanics.
The way this is set-up it could very well have been a rogue-like or rogue-lite game, but it is not and I am glad for it, my ADHD hates repetition ;-)
The storyline was more gripping than I expected and kept me engaged all the way through in one sitting. A big part of it's "epicness" definitely comes from the soundtrack, I don't know who made these tracks but they really pumped me up.
Pricing is totally fair, a good 3-4 hours of entertainment, which I find very nice.
Not every game needs to be 100+ hours, apart from some exceptions those are bound to get boring at some point. I'd rather play a bite-sized great experience than slog through a game that has been dragged out artificially.
Full recommend!

Delighful short little "BP had an accident again" cleanup game.
Is free, plays well, and the little furball creatures are hella cute.
I'll definitely check out the new continued game "Muri: Wildwoods" once it releases!

This little game is in the same vein as "Powerwash Simulator" or "A Game About Digging A Hole", all focussed on a single goal. Perfect for ADHD folk to focus on and unwind to. It certainly calms the storm in my brain.
I cannot find any negatives about this game, it's affordable, well made and runs fine, and even has a little story to it (nothing big, but a nice surprise).
It is literally just a Zen-like experience of picking up, bagging or blowing/raking away leaves, with pleasant graphics and atmospheric chirping birds in the background.
There are a lot of games on Steam that try similar mechanics but ultimately just feel unpolished, clunky and like quick and dirty "student projects" (no offense to actual student projects though, you gotta learn somehow, and some of those are really great). This game though feels very good, polished and finished through and through.
What more could I want?

I headed into this game with no particular expecations, and only the thought "it looks kinda nice".
And I am glad I did! This game is in essence a puzzle game mixed with exploration and a little "detective work".

As an aspiring botanist your plan is to document various strange plants and their growth conditions.
This sounds a lot more boring than it actually is though, since finding the needed seeds, clues and puzzling together a solution for each plant is quite fun, while unlocking new areas and paths through the manor.
Though the puzzling itself is not particularly hard and the clues are rather easy to find, the game complements this with lots of story tidbits about the manor, inhabitants and the particular timeframe around the 19th century.

Having played "The Witness" some time ago, the gorgeous graphics style immediately reminded me of it, but in this game I find it even more "easy on the eyes".
The surrounding areas of the manor are beutiful to look at, I felt relaxed just wandering through them.
There are lots of details and I can sense a lot of work and love was put into creating it.

The whole experience is also underscored by soothing tunes that mostly just subtly react to you discovering new areas or clues, otherwise there is a calming background noise of natural sounds like wind, birds and water outside, as well as some very subtle white noise and "old house" sounds inside.

On the technical side of things, I had absolutely 0 issues without any bugs.
The game runs perfectly without any stutters and high framerate, which is set to 60 FPS by default but can be easily increased to a nice 120 FPS.
Positive to note is the option to switch the antialiasing from my personally dreaded "TAA" to "SMAA" in order to eliminate any kind of "smearing" of objects TAA might cause (I am very sensitive to it!).
The FPS are rock-solid on a 4070 Ti Super whatever the choice of graphical settings may be.
Though the game's graphics aren't that demanding to begin with, having a smooth and steady high framerate with these kinds of graphics is surprisingly difficult to find in most "modern" Unreal Engine 5 games.
This being a Unity engine game might help it a lot in this case.

To complete this game at a relaxed pace only around 5-6 hours are needed, perfect for a weekend afternoon with a cup of tea/coffee or two.
The achievements are also fair and earnable by anyone, and also not missable (game can be continued after the ending by selecting "Continue" in the main menu).
The "price to hours" ratio might be a bit on the higher side, but I still found it worth the price and my time, especially because this game really respected my time and there are no pointless "grinds" thrown in to artifically stretch the experience (looking at you Ubisoft open-world games!).
If the price still seems too high for you, waiting for a sale is an option!

TL;DR: Lovely puzzle game with gorgeous graphics and sound, solid performance and respects your time! Can fully recommend!

While my review for the main game is sadly negative for a variety of reasons, I really love the devs for doing this collab and support for SaveAFox.
Putting up a permanent memorial for Mikayla ingame is also such a touching move, I can clearly see the devs do care a lot.
This move alone makes me want to reconsider my review of the main game, after a few patches I will re-evaluate it in the future. <3

This is basically an interactive music "video" for Red Vox, or rather a walking simulator game centered around some awesome music albums with some light exploration/puzzle elements. There's also secrets to discover and really weird "things" to do.
I don't really want to spoil anything, but both visually and auditory this game is amazing.

Special context for the music:
Listening to music is something I do passionately, I value a good DAC/AMP/headphone combo and I buy and collect music very selectively. The genre is often secondary to me, but it has to "click" with me, which is often not that easy.
So far I've never really (knowingly) heard any music from Red Vox before, but after this I might just go ahead and buy some albums on Bandcamp from them, they are really good and catchy!

And the kicker: this game is literally free, so if you like low-res exploration games and sick alternative rock music, give it a try/listen!
A few nice bonuses (music player, model viewer, photo mode) can be purchased with the DLC for very cheap, but it's not necessary for the gameplay as all content is already free. To support it, I can recommend the DLC nonetheless.