Recent reviews by WHAM

"The bip went boop and the bzzch."

Deadnaut: Signal Lost strives to convey atmosphere through limited means. It puts its player in the seat of a distant commander figure in control of a Deadnaut, a poor as-good-as-dead soul that gets sent on near-suicide missions for reasons I didn't quite catch. You watch your screen and see a dot representing your character, you hear sounds muffled and distant as if relayed through a microphone inside their suit somewhere far away, though some sounds seem to come in strangely clear, so I have no idea what the game is trying to convey here. Story is given in random tidbits gleaned from log entries that I quickly stopped reading, as they all seemed disjointed and unrelated to one another, possibly due to randomization. There are cool screens and gadgets and buttons and you can't do much with any of them, so the areas where the game manages to look nice feel utterly wasted. Or perhaps I was just spoiled too much by Carrier Command 2 and Highfleet...

What the game actually is, in the end, is a fairly slow, repetitive and frustrating roguelike with the traditional grid based movement, randomly generated levels and unforgiving permadeath mechanics. Explaining its mechanics or making them easy to grasp through gameplay is not a strong suite of the game, leaving it up to the player to read up on the tutorials to figure out what things are, and even after a couple of hours I felt like I was missing a lot of basics. Enemies spawn seemingly out of nowhere, often in droves. I found myself mashing a familiar button combo of E-E-Q-Q-Q-Q-E-E-Q-Q-Q-Q. Two presses of the E key to fire a shotgun, then four presses of the Q key to fire the pistol twice, repeat. Occasionally move away from enemies, and when you run out of enemies you get to walk through a very, VERY long corridor where nothing happens. The levels felt far too large, far too empty of content and far too soulless. Perhaps this is an attempt by the developers to convey a kind of space-y horror of great voids and distances, but it does not translate well to the gameplay experience.

I quickly got a pretty bad feeling of this game and don't think I'll be picking it back up anytime soon. While the game boasts great customizability, I didn't really find it even on the runs where I managed to reach the first shop. The upgrade trees seemed uninteresting and the missions too samey to keep me interested. No aspect of the game really carries it anywhere, nothing really sets it apart or gives the player a reason to keep going.

Playtime: 1-2 hours (A handful of short runs)

Ratings (1-10)
Visual: 7
Audio: 4
Story: 3
Gameplay: 2
Overall: 4

"And that's not all, buy my potions now and get absolutely nothing for free!"

Visual novels are an acquired taste and most people will bounce off them, often deeming them 'not even games'. Potionomics strives to stand out in that crowd, with the game blurring the line between a visual novel, a deck-building card game, a time management, potion brewing and shopkeeping simulator, all in one tidy package wrapped in stylish artwork and, quite frankly, far too many pretty characters! It's just not fair, they can't ALL look that good!

But alas, they very much do. Character art, animation and emoting are all top notch and Potionomics is a delight to play just to see the exaggerated animations and expressions will come up as Sylvia charms her way to another sale.

Sylvia is, as one might have guessed from the above, a maker of potions. Having inherited her late uncle's potion shop on a remote magical island, she finds herself also having inherited a debilitating load of debt and a curious talking owl that suggests she partake in a series of potion making contests to win enough prize money to clear her debt and free her to pursue her dreams.

The core gameplay revolves around a loop of crafting potions by balancing six types of ingredients, along with a host of special features like strong smell or pleasant looking bubbles that alter the value of potions brewed. Once Sylvia has her potions, she can let in the customers and initiate a haggling card game in which the player must balance the stress of sales work with suitable combinations of cards to push up the price of her potions and securing a sale before the customer's patience runs out. The money earned can then be put towards more varied and better ingredients, allowing more advanced potions to be crafted for greater income. Each part of this gameplay loop clicks into its place almost immediately.

The result is simply a fun experience, though the looming contest deadlines that demand the player's finest potions are always there to direct focus.

To tie all the gameplay mechanics together Potionomics provides a cast of colourful characters to engage with. Sylvia can meet and forge relationships with various folks on the island, who then provide her with services such as rare ingredients, fuel for potion brewing or improved equipment and furniture. Some adventuring type characters can also accept potions to fuel their adventures, returning with loot from the various regions of the island that Sylvia can then use in her craft. Some basic dialogue options are provided to allow the player to fine-tune conversations to better friendships and perhaps even lead to a passionate love story to form (yes, of course I dated the walrus-man, he was objectively the best pick!). To motivate the player to pay attention, in addition to the snappy dialogue and animation, is the reward of new cards for use in the haggling minigame, which are unlocked whenever a new level of friendship is reached with a character.

All in all I found Potionomics a blast to play and an easy recommend! Just keep in mind that having multiple save files is a good idea, as the game is not going to give you mercy if you find yourself missing a contest deadline!


Playtime: 20+ hours (A single playthrough)

Ratings (1-10)
Visual: 9
Audio: 6
Story: 7
Gameplay: 7
Overall: 8

"I need to start sleeping with an iron horseshoe under my pillow..."

Rusted Moss is a game that pretty much drops its player into the story with very little in the way of explanation. There isn't an introduction to speak of and even the protagonist and her black puck -shaped sidekick (called Puck) are barely introduced by name. The game recounts the aftermath of an explosion aimed at ending humanity and ushering in the age of magical and, in all honestly, really quite evil and twisted fae folk that seem to delight in kidnappings, cruel life-ending pranks and kicking small animals for fun.

From what I can tell, however, the game seems to have multiple potential endings and various dialogue during the game is aimed at particular paths towards particular endings, which can cause the characters to come off as quite confused at times, flipping between viewpoints, moods and ideals at a moments notice based on how and where the player explores.

All in all, the story felt rather meaningless and tacked on as an excuse for the various characters we meet to be varying degrees of upset and hostile.

As for the gameplay side, there is much more meat here, at least for particular kinds of players. Tiled maps to explore, shortcuts to unlock and a neat little roster of weapons and Hollow Knight -inspired trinkets to alter playstyle, all hallmarks of a modern metroidvania, are solidly implemented.

Rusted Moss stands out of the crowd of metroidvania -style games with its unique movement mechanic: the springy-sproingy grapple the player unlocks very early on. Specific kinds of surfaces can be grappled to and the elastic connection between the player character and the world is running on a physics simulation that allows all sorts of precision swings, bounces and tricks to be pulled off. This idea is great, but for me personally, it became a hindrance as the game went on. The later stages require such precise actions, chained grapples and seemingly pixel-perfect control of the keyboard and mouse that I began to feel quite burned out by it all. This became a major issue for me as the game demanded these controls to be fully utilized during hectic bossfights that occasionally felt quite unfair and luck-based, with the boss overlapping the player, dealing contact damage and moving fast enough to prevent escape as the grapple impacts the boss enemy's body uselessly.

The game with its unique, if stressful, controls comes packaged in a fairly retro looking pixel art style that draws clear inspiration from Japanese cartoons and animation. Low native resolution is used to ensure pixels are properly rendered even as the game rotates certain enemies and projectiles, though this occasionally creates some seemingly misplaced pixels, especially with the weapons the player character carries. Sounds and music do their jobs well enough, though some music tracks can get rather grating as they repeat over and over, which can pile on frustration as the player takes on the same boss for the fifteenth time in a row.

All in all, I can see the potential of Rusted Moss and how it is definitely a game of note. For me, though, its punishing default difficulty combined with a story arc I found rather unpleasant and messy, make it difficult to recommend for a general player.

If you are one for physics -based movement, extreme precision platforming and high skill mouse-and-keyboard gunplay, this might still be for you, even if it wasn't quite for me.


Playtime: 12 hours (A single playthrough)

Ratings (1-10)
Visual: 8
Audio: 6
Story: 3
Gameplay: 6
Overall: 5

"H.R. Giger would like his penis statues back."

I've been noticing a trend in videogame storytelling in the past few years: games want to really go hard for that whole 'show, don't tell' style of storytelling. Most attempts fall flat because what they show is so vague and open to interpretation that there might as well not be a story.

This is especially relevant in case when it comes to Scorn.

Scorn is really a game about only one things: visually realizing an artists uncomfortable vision of a flesh-mechanical civilization, where every button, switch and lever is a squishy horror and entire buildings are constructed seemingly only for the purpose of inflicting torment and suffering. If a story exists in this game, it is left so vague and so unclear as to not exist at all. Why places exist, why we move through them, why we interact with them, why we fight against fleshy blobmonsters or why the game ends with such an underwhelming whimper of the developer displaying their deep discomfort with sexuality, we will never know.

Scorn is very, very pretty, though. The only reason it ever got off the ground and got attention is its visual and technical production. Borrowing from a few disturbing art sources for inspiration, it creates a truly impressive visual parade of horrors. Machines, rooms, passages, long-dead creatures, even the very weapons the player carries are all designed and realized with such meticulous detail it's a wonder the developer ever completed their project.

Sadly, I fear it is that attention to visual detail and rich animation of gore and flesh that left the rest of the game so utterly failing to be playable. Scorn has perhaps four or five simple puzzles, and each of those are repeated a standard set of three times to pad out the game. It has maybe four or five enemy types, which are repeated ad nauseam. It gives you four weapons, very limited ammo and a combat system that is frustratingly slow, clunky and unfun to play with. Its very visual style fight against any attempt to create a game in this setting, as the rooms and tunnels begin to melt together in the player's mind for looking too similar, as navigation becomes a chore and as the prolonged animations drag on to turn even the most simple actions, such as moving an elevator, into sheer suffering to wait through.

Scorn, then, is a game that manages to intrigue for its first half hour, and for about another fifteen minutes towards the very end. Between those times there are a few hours of horribly underdeveloped gameplay, wasted time and repetition that leaves me wholly unable to recommend this game. If you want to get all the best parts of Scorn without having to suffer through its content, you can just watch someone else do a longplay of it on Youtube. You'll see all the pretty and strange and disturbing things without having to waste your own time or money.

Playtime: 4 hours (A single playthrough)

Ratings (1-10)
Visual: 9
Audio: 5
Story: 1
Gameplay: 2
Overall: 3

"Awaken, dreamer!"

I had little idea of what I was getting into when I began to play Lunacid. I knew the game had "some weird mechanics", but I had no real idea. Then I read the in-game manual and I began to see just what kind of madness the devs had plunged me into, and I loved it!

The game tracks the current real-world phase of the moon and that has an impact on how magic works in the game.

If you're like me, you know from that little tidbit alone that we're in for a good time!

Lunacid casts you down into a well, where all the dead, corrupt and criminals belong, as punishment for whatever crime you may or may not have committed. Once down there, you begin your exploration with the goals of survival and finding a way out of the well. This journey will go through forgotten temples, ancient catacombs, underground forests and far more, with each area packed with detail, varied enemies and so very many secrets it's near impossible to find all of them on a first playthrough. I surely didn't!

The game is rendered in a faux PlayStation 1 era graphical style, with chunky character models and limited special effects and lighting, while making the most of these limitations to invoke atmosphere and mystery all around. The soundscape offers both basic sound effects for common interactions and attacks, as well as more unusual noises to provide unsettling atmosphere and the occasional scare. The soundtracks is the most mixed part of the game. The game clearly states who created each track in the list as it begins to play, revealing that a host of composers worked on music for the game, which leads to a somewhat confused list as the style and theme can vary quite wildly from one area to the next. None of the music I'd call bad, just a little odd at times.

While there is no doubt that I'm recommending this game, I do wish to voice a minor gripe with it. I happened to begin playing near christmas time, and the game seems to have some seasonal content. The safe area was adorned with festive decorations and I discovered a Chistmas -themed spell early on, which felt odd and a little immersion breaking. Some of the NPC interactions were also a little odd and gave the game a more humorous tone than might have felt appropriate at times. Expect quirkiness.

But most of all: expect a fun exploration with plenty to offer!


Playtime: 13+ hours (Single playthrough)

Ratings (1-10)
Visual: 8
Audio: 8
Story: 7
Gameplay: 10
Overall: 9

"Unspeakable, unnameable, uncomfortable. University!"

Dreams in the Witch house is, for all intents and purposes, a faithful retelling of the H.P. Lovecraft book by the same name, with some added bells, whistles and mechanics to turn it into a proper game. It is also, by far, the best H.P. Lovecraft inspired videogame I am currently aware of, and easily earns its recommendation.

In the game you take on the role of Walter Gilman, a young man recently moved from the town of Haverhill to the city of Arkham to study at the local university. Your aunt has graciously paid for your lodging for the next couple months, but most unfortunately the house and room you come to inhabit are quite definitely cursed.

Dark dreams and visions, recurring rodent infestations and mundane threats like criminals on the street all conspire to make the simple act of studing for exams a challenge for Walter, making each new day both an oppotunity and a challenge. Should we focus on studying at home with the earplugs on? Head to the university to enjoy the warm fireplace of the library reading hall? Eat an expensive dinner to feel better after that recurring nightmare about cosmic mathematical music? See a movie while hoping not to encounter that creepy old woman that keeps staring and grinning in a deeply unsetting way?

There is so much on offer here, so much inspiration and inventiveness in how all aspects of the story, characters and game work together to build up a survival challenge for the player to overcome.

When it comes to the audiovisual aspects, the game both shines and stumbles a little. The soundscape with its jolly daytime music, brooding nighttime ambience and the my-heart-skipped-several-beats sound of a shattering lightbulb are absolutely perfect, and while initially not having any voice acting felt cheap, it makes a lot of sense considering the number of times an average player is likely to replay parts of the game. As for the graphics, the game does a terrific job in depicting its settings, but this is also where I feel it suffers its greatest issues. While the characters are drawn in a crisp pixel art style with flat shading and distinct eyes, the backgrounds and objects around them are drawn in a more blurred style that allows for better shading and detail, but also has the characters looking quite out of place against some backdrops. Over time my eyes adjusted to this, but especially early on I felt this was quite distracting and I wished the game had chosen one style or the other for all of its visuals.

As a final note, while I will happily score the gameplay elements of Dreams in the Witch House a full ten, it has to be pointed out that some conditions for triggering gameplay elements can be a little frustrating at times. As much of the game is randomized between runs, triggering certain events can take far longer than one might wish for, delaying or blocking the player's progress. Don't expect to discover everything, at least not without a guide.

But don't fret even if you don't discover quite everything, either. That discovery, experimentation and challenge is precisely what makes this game so good, so fresh and so easy to recommend!


Playtime: 20+ hours (Several playthroughs)

Ratings (1-10)
Visual: 7
Audio: 9
Story: 9
Gameplay: 10
Overall: 9

In under an hour of gameplay I encountered several immersion and game breaking bugs and issues. To top that off it seems the developers have turned to AI generated content rather than human generated content. As such I can only recommend people avoid this product. Had I known, I wouldn't have purchased the game to begin with.

"Many barrels! Many new friends!"

I guess I'm not the only person who thought Blood was a pretty neat old-timey shooter. Cultic takes a ton of cues from the Build engine classic, thought we have to make do without cheesy one liners this time around, as our protagonist is quite silent.

While I'll obviously recommend Cultic, since I quite enjoyed my time with it, I'll have to provide a warning to start off: at the time of writing the game isn't quite completed. Cultic appears to be the first episode, with at least one more coming later down the line, paid for separately. In the time of Early Access games this can feel a bit shady, but for this project I felt the risk worth taking and the price worth paying, even if I can't know what the 'full' game will be like.

Oh, and it's a solo developer project, which will always earn an extra point from me!

The game takes place in a remote community haunted by missing persons cases. A shady cult has taken root and it is up to you to go in and figure things out. The start of your journey might be rough, but rising from a cold grave is par for the course in these games!

The first things to catch the eye in Cultic is the visual style. The game merges old with new, using limited colour palettes and chunky 3D assets together with voxels and 2D sprites to create a look that's just modern enough to function on a technical and gameplay level while retaining the charm of retro games. Cultists, zombies, skeletons and even a damn tank will try to prevent your progress, but copious use of explosives, molotov cocktails and a nice little assortment of classic video game firearms should see you through.

The game doesn't do anything groundbreaking with its design, though. Puzzles are simple affairs, exploration and navigation are straightforward enough to ensure you're not getting stuck and enemy encounters come at a steady pace, keeping the player on their toes and providing ample opportunity for blood, gore and guts to spill.

All the while the game serves up a buffet of meaty weapon and impact sounds and a nice soundtrack to boot, building tension and promoting the sense of action as appropriate. I do have to point out, though, that Blood cultists had a much better scream when lit on fire, so I'm ducking a point out of the audio score for that.


All in all, Cultic is a solid six-hour romp of nostalgia, violence, horror and gore. If you enjoyed Blood back in its day or just want something that looks retro but playes really well, Cultic is a fine purchase to make!


Playtime: 6+ hours (Full playthrough)

Ratings (1-10)
Visual: 9
Audio: 7
Story: 5
Gameplay: 8
Overall: 8
Posted 28 July.

"This might be the first time a game made me actually FEEL seasick..."

I kept an eye on Barotrauma for a couple reasons. For one it was a Finnish game, which earns bonus points from me, but it was also a game about submarines, underwater perils and management of a ship, all of which sound GREAT to me!

But, as you might have noticed, the review I'm giving out with less than an hour spent playing the game is a negative one, and there are a few good reasons for that.

First and foremost: this is not really a game suited for single player. It is designed around the learning and mastery of complex systems and communicating with your crewmates on how to manage all of that together. Since one of the key systems to master is the physics-based movement of your character, efficient movement and communication feel key to success. However, the AI crewmates are immensely efficient and quick to act, making the players actions and input feel almost pointless, at least early on.

That movement, along with the camera motion accompanying it, is why I gave up rather quickly. Movement and animation are based on physics, which is a neat idea and might allow for complex, unexpected interactions. All it did for me was send my character bumping into doors, ragdolling inside hatches I accidentally closed on myself and just generally acting sluggish and unresponsive. Add to this the fact that the camera lurches around quickly to track mouse movements and I found the game gave me a headache after just 15 minutes of play, unless I sat still and stared at the captain's screen, which wasn't much fun alone.

I feel Barotrauma borrows a lot of its ideas from Space Station 13, a complex game of varying roles for players to learn and adopt. But unlike SS13, Barotrauma cannot hide its complexities behind simplified visuals and instead tries to show and simulate a bit too much, easily overwhelming new players. It's quite telling that one of the first things the game offers you is a link to a wiki. A sign that the game simply lacks the tools with which to teach you all the mechanics you'll need to understand to play.

It's also a sign for me to move on.

I'd love to see more of the world on offer, to experience more adventures, but as a solo player there really isn't much here. With a group of friends and a lot of time, you might find this game worth your time, though.


Playtime: 1+ hour (Not much at all)

Ratings (1-10)
Visual: 7
Audio: 7
Story: 3
Gameplay: 4
Overall: 3

With less than 10 hours played I feel like I've already seen all there is to see. The missions repeat themselves, spawning the same roster of enemies with the same seemingly broken spawn points placing newly appeared enemies regularly within a meter or two of a player. Cosmetics are overtly expensive, pointless and extremely limited in what is available. One helmet with a bunch of different textures over it is a very limited selection. As for progression: number go up. That's it. You can get a weapon with a bigger number, and then you can select a mission with a bigger number, and because both numbers go up it plays the same way as before, just with bigger numbers now. Vast majority of players also do not communicate. No voice, no text, just running at the enemy with the mindless purpose of reaching the next bigger number.

I hoped Darktide would stand on its own, be different from Vermintide in tone and gameplay, but in the end it's only different in theme. And while that theme makes for a small handful of very impressive looking levels, that's all there is: a small handful of levels to the point where the random mission selector regularly picks the same mission and map three times in a row.

If you are looking for a gunplay focused 4 player co-op: Left4Dead 2 is far more polished, has far more variety and a far better flow to its missions and gameplay.

If you are looking for vermintide: just play Vermintide.