Recent reviews by unifyzero

Did you play Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and find yourself thinking, like many of us did, this would be so much better if I could play as a magpie? Luckily Monster Shop Games swooped in to give the people what they've been asking for!
Rating: 7/10
Overall: A really enjoyable game in the vein of THPS, with great theming and humor, held back a little bit by some jankiness and limited game modes, but 100% worth the asking price.
What I liked: The game play is fun and rewarding, and does a great job of replicating the short, frantic runs that defined many gamers' childhoods. The theme is incredible and unique, and the game is jam packed with humor.
What I didn't like: There is quite a bit of jankiness (clipping, graphical hiccups, etc.) nothing serious enough to ruin the experience, but worth noting. Being nitpicky, I'd really like to see some additional game modes, to add variety.

Probably worth it if you're looking for a different take on a political-sim/4x type game, as long as you're willing to deal with a little jank and a lack of meaningful depth.
Rating: 5/10
Overall: It's an interesting premise with quite a bit of promise, even if it frequently falls short of reaching it's full potential. I don't know that there's anything quite like it, and for that I have to give it credit.
What I liked: It's a sort-of bite sized 4x which is nice for times when you don't want to spend 50 hours to complete 1 campaign. The FMV sequences are pretty fun. There are a lot of decent elements that are enjoyable, despite typically being a little undercooked.
What I didn't like: Many of the systems feel shallow or incomplete (e.g., there is very little nuance to policies you can enact, you're incredibly limited on potential interactions with foreign leaders and your own ministers). The ending I got was very disconnected from the actions I took in the game. Most egregious of all, I hit a point where there really just wasn't much to do other than advance to the next turn; your actions are limited by so many factors I feel like getting stuck doing basically nothing is probably normal after a certain point.

A surprisingly fresh take on deck building with a ton of variety, fleshed out PVE and PVP, all for an incredibly good price.
Rating: 8/10
Overall: I would consider Tuggowar a "Do Not Miss" title for fans of deckbuilding, and encourage everyone else to at least give the demo a try. I genuinely would not be surprised if Tuggowar sparks the creation of a new branch of area control deckbuilders.
What I liked: The game play feels simultaneously familiar yet completely fresh. The mechanics are very solid and give the game a ton of replay-ability. It adds elements of asymmetry, area control, hidden-tactics, and consistent progression into a highly enjoyable package.
What I didn't like: In many battles the purchasable cards for you and your opponent are different, and while I love this element of the game, it can sometimes feel unfair if those sets of cards end up a bit unbalanced. There is some limited ability to increase the chances of certain cards showing up for you, but I'd really like to see some sort of redraw/mulligan system to give the player more control.

Very much worth a buy despite some quirks.
Rating: 6/10
Overall: May be worth waiting for a sale, but easy to justify at full price for how unique it is.
What I liked: The gameplay is fun, unique, and charming. You're given plenty of options on how to approach most cases and solving them is very rewarding. Though it felt like the 1.0 release was a little early, they are still pushing updates.
What I didn't like: It can be a bit buggy, cases can feel a bit repetitive, and on occasion you might run into something that you logically should be able to do (i.e., obvious evidence connections, questions you should be able to ask suspects, etc.) but can't due to game limitations. While I wouldn't expect a game to account for every possibility it can be fairly annoying.

What should be a very solid game gets tripped up by excessive RNG.
Rating: 4/10
Overall: I absolutely do not recommend it at full price, but for $10, it's probably worth it. I've already got 15 hours out of it, so I can't complain too much, but this game should be so much better than it is.
What I liked: There are a lot of promising things going on: building a school, some semi-permanent progression, battles, balancing relationships, creating unique school houses. The game has almost everything I'd want in this sort of experience.
What I didn't like: Basically every aspect relies on RNG and ends up making the experience more frustrating than rewarding. You can easily get soft-locked out of objectives because the single card you need just doesn't show up, a dungeon run can end in an insane difficult spike that takes you from defeating dragons to having your party wiped by goblins. Not only is the entire game reliant on RNG, but the player rarely has the ability to control their own fate.

A very enjoyable puzzle game that's challenging without being punishing.
Rating: 6/10
Overall: I'd have a hard time recommending it for the full price ($15), but on sale or in a bundle this is absolutely worth it.
What I liked: The puzzles are fun and allow for a ton of creativity, most can be solved very easily, and the real challenge is in min/maxing your solution making the game great for a casual or more involved sessions. The story is fun and doesn't overstay its welcome. The theme is fantastic.
What I didn't like: There are too few unique requirements for puzzles making the game feel a bit repetitive at times, especially when doing the daily challenges. Many of the parts feel redundant and see very little use, really highlighting the lack of unique requirements.

A serviceable game with better alternatives.
Rating: 4/10
Overall: As a PVE tactical shooter it lags behind the competition (Ready or Not and Ground Branch); however, the PVP may give it an edge for players looking for that. Ultimately, I can't see anything it does better than the competition, I'll probably still play it as a change of pace, but this should not be considered a 1.0, and I would only recommend it on discount if you've already wore out the competing games.
What I liked: Dog! It seems to be more stable than the competition (I've experienced 0 crashes). The semi-procedural maps are nice for some variety. I like the promise of certain features more than their actual implementation. The ability to draw out plans is fun but ultimately feels more gimmicky than useful. The ability to cut power and rappel should be awesome but feel half-baked (e.g., AI doesn't seem phased by the power getting cut and the darkness doesn't seem to offer any benefits).
What I didn't like: It's buggy and unpolished. The control scheme is inexcusably bad and not at all intuitive. Just trying to start a game feels like a chore, loadouts usually don't save and you have a limited time to set your loadout, gunplay feels flat and bland. The maps feel underwhelming.

A fun and unique puzzle game!
Rating: 9/10
Overall: A sort of rogue-like, puzzle game that really provides that "one more run" feeling! A must-buy for puzzle game fans.
What I liked: I love that you're able to pursue goals in whatever order you want. Some will be unachievable until you unlock others, but it's fun trying to combine multiple goals in 1 run. I also really like the feeling of constant progression, where each goal provides a challenge and reward!
What I didn't like:I just want more! It took me 8 hours to 100% which is very reasonable for the price, but I would appreciate some different game modes to improve replayability.

EDIT: I had to come back to bump up the rating and amend my review. I wanted more and the dev gave us more! Great update that adds a new challenge and what looks like a pretty sizable improvement to replay-ability!

An incomplete, but worthy successor to the SWAT series of games
Rating: 7/10
Overall: A very enjoyable SWAT experience held back by some nagging issues.
What I liked: Gunplay, presentation, and gameplay. Guns feel great and unique, very well done. The environmental storytelling and maps are top tier! The general gameplay is very solid and has potential to be incredible with future updates to AI and scenario design.
What I didn't like: AI and scenario design. Enemies need more variation as they all tend to feel like elite soldiers. Teammates have improved with the 1.0 update, but are still regularly frustrating (e.g., not reacting to obvious threats, walking into uncleared areas to bag evidence). While the storytelling and set design are outstanding the scenarios don't feel different enough as they're all filled with a lot of elite soldier type enemies rather than having an enemy count/skill level that makes sense for the scenario (Sullivan's Slope being the only real exception).

A very charming bullet hell, rougelite.
Rating: 6/10
Overall: An incredibly cute game with a surprising amount of depth. Well worth checking out for fans of rouguelites, bullet hells, and monster collectors.
What I liked: The presentation is top notch, the variety of everything keeps replay-ability high. The base building is a little too simplistic for my tastes, but everything else is very well done.
What I didn't like: While progress is fairly steady it feels like it becomes a bit sluggish pretty early on. This could be a skill issue on my part, but I feel like it's largely due to how exploration works.