Recent reviews by rpmaia

This game has got it all! Great fighting system, amazing characters, incredible design, and just this sense of superior coolness that's irresistible! Sure, Street Fighter can be the classic and Ryu an all time honoured warrior... But Ryu, Sol BadGuy carries a gunsword and rides an Akira-like motorcycle! You tell me what is cooler!

Note: haven't finished the game, will be updating this review as I get to more of it.

Omori got me hooked from the first minutes, from the White Space to the moment that picture falls to the ground. You can just sense there's something more to this game than simple, cute RPG. But the hand drawn characters are great, and the soundtrack is amazing. The battle system, while relatively simple, is interesting enough and doesn't get in the way of the plot or story, which I guess will be the game's main strength.

Nothing quite like this piece of gold out there. Granted, you do have to take your time, and be prepared to absorb all the written information being given to you. But this is the missing link between videogames and literature, and you'll be a better human for having played it.

OK, very cool to see a hidden reference in Fatal Falls to my favorite band. Well played, Motion Twin / Evil Empire, very well played indeed!

If you love Dead Cells, as you should, no reason to not get Fatal Falls, as it's more of the same: more weapons, more biomes, more enemies, more bosses, more lore rooms.

The first new biome, Fractured Shrines, gives a whole new set of environmental traps, and I got more angry with the new traps than the new enemies. But Undying Shores is my new favorite, because it gives brief glimpses to the Beheaded origin, it can be no mistake that the new lore room features a "familiar" skull, that the new Cultist enemy ressurrects fallen enemies, and that new boss Scarecrow can get pretty close to all the references to man/plant hybrids we find in other stages of the game. Is Scarecrow responsible for Beheaded's blob?

Dead Cells has always been one of the best games to marry to great success both a sense of mistery and wonder, and at this point in the game no definitive answers have been given regarding what has happened in the Island. I can only hope the next Motion Twin game can carry this legacy into their next game

I bought this in antecipation of the upcoming Strive. I'm fascinated by the fighting games concept, as I thought I played a lot of them when I was younger, and came now to realize I didn't understand a single f*ck! This was in the pre-Internet days, so absolutely no one knew what were neutrals, pokes, meaties, okizemes, etc. Heck, anyone who could pull a dragon punch at will was already so much better than everyone else!

For me, the best part of Xrd are its beautiful, beautiful!, tutorials and missions, that really get you sweating to learn all concepts and mechanics. Most developers don't put an ounce of effort to teach new players anything, and just compare Xrd's teaching classes to Street Fighter V's, which consists of a couple of battles telling you what is walk, jump, attack and fireball. Thank you very much for your effort, dr. Capcom, but if I came to a fighting game I can already guess what a special attack is.

Couple that with f*cking awesome characters and incredible animations, and you have one the most approachable fighting games ever!

The bad: there's seems to be no one currently playing the game online. Oh, well

I started to explore more of Klei's catalogue after the incredible Griftlands EA release, and it blows my mind how Oxygen Is Not Included is just as incredible as Griftlands or Mark Of The Ninja, but in a completely differente genre. The gameplay, mechanics, everything is so different from one game to another, you could honestly say they were made by different companies. But the charm, depth, low prices, everything relates to Klei, which I'm very strongly thinking can be the current most talented development house in the market. Where a company such as, say, Larian (which I love, no mistake about it) has found its core design and stuck to it, Klei has been evolving, developing, taking chances, and seeing them pay off. I bought ONI after playing it with a friend and loved the concept and the execution. Now, this does seem to be a tough game, but if I can support Klei for future projects, so much for the better.

Outstanding! If you have even a minor interest in shooting games, you owe it to yourself to play AimLab. It will not only make you better, but it's lots of fun! How could it be even better? It's free. Like, really free, no "oh, watch this ad to unlock X", or "you want to get new, better lessons, it's ony 9,95€ per month!". Get it, try it, leave a overwhemingly positive review.

To sum it up: a good enough game, but not great.

This is a tough review for me to write. I was an early backer for Phoenix Point, and felt it could be the next great TB tactics game. The potential is still there. But somewhere along the line, what could put PP as a reference in the genre got lost. It was first shown with a body horror, lovecraftian sci-fi setting (in the early days, there was even jokes being made by the community that The Fly's Brundefly could be an enemy in the game, and would mesh really well). But that was dropped for another post-apocalyptic seen so many times sci-fi world. The written lore was amazing and showed a lot of depth, and really, search for Phoenix Point's Briefings to have an idea of what was achieved by the writing team. But such a deeply researched, very well writen lore didn't make a difference in the game. Initial footage showed battles in oil rigs with huge monsters being hinted, but by the final game there were no huge monsters, just your regular troop soldiers. Comparisons with Firaxis X-Com's franchise will always be made, and rightly so, as Phoenix Point's developers didn't shy away from admiting the influence. Which it's just as well, seeing as Firaxis was highly influenced by the original XCom.

If you played your War Of The Chosen to death, and can't stand to return to defeating those damned Chosen and their endless banter, Phoenix Point is a fine option. But do realize that it stands as one of those soccer players that show a huge potential at an early age, and by reasons unknow just end up playing in the lower leagues.

[EA Review Update]: so having played 7 hours by now, I can offer a more insightful review. I have never played a D&D tabletop game, so this review is only from an CRPG fan.

The good: combat is already very tight, and you can be certain most of your enjoyment will come from the battles. The added verticality offers new dimensions to combat, such as spiders and lizards will stick to walls and force you to adapt. I really like the light and shadow mechanics, it just makes sense when fighting in dark and claustrophobic dungeons. The spell variety is quite entertaining.

The so-so: at this point, puzzles are very simple, I'm yet to find more then "Press hidden button to open door".

The bad: game still presents long loading times, even if the most recent patch was to address it.

All in all, Solasta is still on track to become quite the reference for CRPGs.

Very cool