Recent reviews by Ragnar

Multiplayer so bad. :(

Not as good as the original, but better than most any other FPSes out there. I love it. Fantastic game. Easy recommend!

The combat feels awful to me, but the themes, story, characters and ambiance more than make up for it. Thoroughly enjoyed playing it!

This DLC is worth it purely to support the developer. But on top of that, you get some absolutely insane challenges and a lot of really funny, really painful situations. Not recommended for first time mans, but if you've delved into these dunges before and you want to beef things up, get it. 100%

Easily my all-time favourite roguelike. Beautifully balanced, funny, clever and tough as nails. The developer is active in the community and easy to reach. Bugs get squashed faster than people can find them. Great game and worth your support!

Dota 2's greatest ultimate.

ACTUALLY ALSO A REALLY GREAT GAME

This game is excellent. It's not entirely perfect, but even then what few mistakes it makes are primarily in the UI, the writing and the walls of text in the tutorial, they all manage to feed that nostalgic, retro feel. Everything else fits in perfectly. Creatio 39 has managed to create an old fashioned turn based tactical game, keeping all the things we used to love while not being a slave to it. The game has learned from the mistakes of previous generations, built upon them, and it tells.

The balance of the game feels solid. It can be a little jarring to newcomers to see that even the easiest enemies can take several rounds and plenty of ammo to kill, but it serves to create a surprisingly frantic and intense experience -- even when you can take all the time in the world. The enemies are always crashing down on you, your ammo is always in limited supply, and the battlefield is in constant motion.

The battlefield, on that note, is a fantastic part of the game. It's incredibly dynamic. When the enemies can't reach you, they'll chew through crates, barrels doors and walls to get to you. Holding them off requires not only plenty of situational awareness. You'll need to watch the walls, look for cracks, identify which ones are the closest to collapsing. But more than that, both you and the enemy can partake in a bit of area denial tactics.

Some of the monsters when killed will leave behind patches of radiation. Stepping into those will give you a long lasting damage-over-time effect that'll tick your health down every turn. On the flip side, you've got kerosene on your side. Not only can you push and pull barrels around, you can actually drain them into your inventory, then splash them onto the ground. You can coat hallways and rooms in this flammable liquid - and it'll do exactly what you think. However, keeping them in the barrels lets you shoot and set off a single point, dealing extra damage. That, however, means pushing and pulling it into position.

Crates of ammo can be another terrific tool. You can use them to get a full clip of ammo into your currently held weapon, or as improvised explosives. These can be extremely powerful against groups of enemies, it's just the question of how badly you want the ammo it holds. With all these different elements going on, it's no surprise that when fire gets mixed in, things get frantic. Suddenly your soldiers have to dance between walls of flame, puddles of radiation and the enemies themselves, all the while having to worry about setting off any remaining explosives and crumbling walls.

The game is hard, but it never feels like you've been cheated when something goes wrong. The balance is fair. It takes a bit of getting used to, but once you do it gives you a very rewarding experience. This is a game that rewards you for being able to adapt to different situations, for being able to recover control when things go wrong and for knowing when to give up and fall back.

For any fan of turn based tactics, I recommend this game heartily.

Pneuma: Breath of Life is a wonderful puzzle game. The puzzles are all clever and creative, and they're all set within a pretty world that's a joy to explore. I really don't know what else I can truly say about it. It looks good, it plays well, the puzzles are rewarding and clever -- and what more do you want out of a puzzle game? I feel like I can recommend it to anyone that loves a good puzzler. It's not quite perfect though, but even the downside isn't much to write about.

The biggest problem with the game is the narrator, the protagonist, who talks endlessly. The things he says rarely interesting and they do little more than make you dislike him more and more, little by little. There's an arch to it, surely, but the moment I just put the voice volume down to 0 and turned off the subtitles, suddenly I was exploring a truly wonderful world, without this stream-of-consciousness semi-philosophical blabbering. The game just got better. The other thing is a pretty blatant mistake, which raises pretty big alarms.

In the very tutorial, at the very start of the game, you're asked to interact with a lever. Click and hold, then use W/D to move it --- wait, what? D does nothing. A does nothing. W does nothing. No, it's supposed to be W/S. Backwards and forwards. Easy to figure out, but how does something like this make it through playtesting? Seriously! Anyone testing the game should've found this from the start and it should've been fixed instantly. So really my first impression with the game was "oh dear, did anybody actually test this before release?".

Thankfully it was the only real problem I had. A couple of finicky puzzles, sure, but all doable. The one time I actually managed to just 'break' the game was by locking myself in a room by undoing the puzzle I had solved to open the door. I slipped inside, the door closed behind me, and then the puzzle within the room was solved -- but I had to go back. But I couldn't. The door was closed. Oops. Not a big deal since I could just quit to main menu and resume again, which saved me having to backtrack to the little puzzle hub.

All in all, I liked it.

I can't with good conscience recommend this game to anyone. It's a straight mobile port. It does well to adapt to different resolutions but the art used in the game really doesn't stand up to being brought up to HD. The asthetics the art goes for though are pretty lovely, I have to admit. It evokes the themes of the old HeroQuest boardgame mixed in with the classic old fantasy art tropes of that era, which I think looks fantastic. A little silly, but there's nothing wrong with light hearted fun!

Fun though is something this game lacks. The primary gameplay is wandering through a tile-based dungeon, bumping into enemies and then fighting them one on one. No matter how many enemies are in a room, you will never face them at the same time. They'll get in line and take turns being beaten up by you. What groups of monsters do is give something they call a 'gang' buff; when you get into a fight with a monster that has other monsters close by, it gets a +50% buff. I'm not sure what exactly gets buffed, if it's a specific stat or just straight up all of them, but they do get noticably tougher.

Dealing with them doesn't change, however. You just click until they die. You drink a potion every once in a while if you're taking damage, or you can use a spell charge if you're feeling fancy, but that's really it. Whether you play the Assassin, the Water Demon or the Ninja, you'll be doing the same exact thing, using the same tactics. All that changes between them is that some have access to different types of gear from shops, but even then the gear doesn't add anything but flavour. It's all just pure stat bonuses; a bonus to attack or a bonus to defense.

If you play this game for more than five to ten minutes it quickly becomes terribly boring. The game is best enjoyed, I believe, in short bursts on a cellphone or a tablet, where it shines. There the lack of tactics don't mean much because you're just grabbing it for a tiny bit. Kill a few monsters, do a quest, get some gold and get a little tougher. The utter lack of depth is completely fine in that setting. It's ironic then that the cellphone version is less than half the current price (at the time of writing) than the PC version.

Right now the game is being sold for $5.99 with a -15% special promotion that drops it down to $5.09. Meanwhile you can get the game for your Android at $1.99. No joke. You're paying $3 extra ($4 after the sale ends on March 10th) for a far inferior experience, which I find terribly dishonest. I don't know why mobile ports feel like they have to charge double or triple or quadruple the mobile prices. Oh well!

All in all, I suggest you give this a pass. If you're a fan of boardgames, this does not invoke any of the old joys of HeroQuest or its ilk. It's not a good RPG, or adventure, or a good exploration. Check out the mobile version instead.

I have nothing but praise for this game. Right from the start it's incredibly endearing, filled with fantastic writing that both manages to be real and topical, and maintain an air of humour. The writing is top notch. Every character introduced is unique and by far the majority of them have something to amuse and entertain. Good writing and dialogue in games is incredibly important to me, and Hot Tin Roof never fails to satisfy or impress. The theme and setting are used perfectly, which combined with the wonderful music really makes the game an enjoyable experience.

The gameplay is basic, but that's in no way a bad thing. It's a non-violent Metroidvania, in which you gather new types of ammo for your revolver which in turn give you access to new abilities. The basic ammo lets you break boxes. The bubbles let you reveal secrets. The grappler lets you climb. Each time you find a new one, you're unlocking a new part of the world that you couldn't access before.

The world feels really big, too. Overwhelming at first, but you can quickly get used to it. This feeling returns every time you find some new location to explore as well, making everything even -bigger-. I would've appreciated a good map to go with the game; if there is one, I couldn't find it, which has you relying on memory to figure out where to go, where you've been. Like I said though, you'll learn your way around the place soon enough.

It's a good game, and the price is perfect. I recommend this whole heartedly. :)