Recent reviews by Hekateras

I had some fun hours with this. Concept and graphics are super charming, core gameplay loop is satisfying, and the meta-progression is quick enough that you don't stay frustrated for long. However, I'm now at the point where I can fairly easily survive for 60 minutes and have unlocked almost everything, but am still missing two of the random drops needed for the "true" ending. For reference, I'm at 19 hours.

Downsides:
- Can't save and exit a run and resume it later. (To be clear, I'm talking about saving a run's progress, NOT savescumming.) Fine when you're only lasting 20 minutes or less early on. Less fine when you have enough unlocks that runs can take an hour. I often play this before bed and this is a terrible design decision for a "turn your brain off and have some fun grinding" game.
- There are a lot of random upgrades and weapons you can find, but not enough variety in the enemies (within run or between runs) for the variety in weapons to really have a point. You learn pretty quickly that anything that hits multiple enemies is better and anything that requires (slow) precise aiming is terrible. Turret and drone upgrades are ultimately not worth bothering with because they can never be upgraded to the point of automating dealing with waves, drone can handle the first 1-2 waves on its own if it's literally the first upgrade you find and that's about it.
- For the boss fights, there's no real strat to it other than keep firing missiles and keep clearing the other enemies enough that you can move around freely and dodge the hits. Rinse and repeat. Not much to do here other than keep upgrading missiles and spider speed between runs.
- More importantly, the above issues are making the lategame feel grindy and not worth bothering with.
- Just enough lore to pique your interest, but no apparent earnest interest in telling a story. The mechanic you get upgrades from between runs is the only character you have a relationship with. Unclear why - having some kind of relationship progression with a character you keep encountering while mining, such as that hermit guy, would have given you something to look forward to besides seeing the same five weapons. A very interesting world and premise here that seem more like set dressing. (Don't get me wrong, nothing wrong with that by itself in a gameplay-oriented game. I mention it mainly because the gameplay ends up feeling so thin.)
- There's really no reason to keep looking for blueprints once you've hit the above point of being able to reliably last until phase 3, aside from completionism. (For instance, I just unlocked Armored Claws v.3. and apparently there's a tier 4? This is completely pointless since tier 3 is already enough to let you effectively squash any wall enemies. Being able to do it a very tiny bit faster makes no difference.)
- Lack of a satisfying ending. (I looked up the true ending and it's terrible. Definitely not going to try to grind it out for that one.)

I do keep coming back to this game, and I really love the general art style, polish, etc. Just wish there was a bit more to it.

I'd love to recommend this game. I got it while it was still in Early Access around fall 2021, and enjoyed the content at the time a lot. I was excited for the full release.

Unfortunately, terrible optimization makes the current version unplayable. Literally - it crashes on launch, and the devs respond to these issues by citing insufficient GPU.

To be fair, my PC is pretty old. But it also runs games like Dishonored, XCOM, Oxygen Not Included, Disco Elysium and The Sims 3+4 with no real issues. I really don't see why it should fail to run a simple 2D crafting game unless some truly terrible decisions were made under the hood. Many, many people on the forums are having this same issue, many of them with much more advanced hardware than what I have.

I'll revise this review if the devs improve optimization post-launch, but until then... Yeah.

The DLC is, put simply, a must-have. The basegame is great, but the DLC fleshes it out in a way that makes it feel truly complete in every way. This includes new enemies that address balance gaps, new agents that encourage you to explore more aggressive playstyles, but it's especially true if you care about the game's lore and characters (or you wish the basegame had a deeper story and more worldbuilding). Not only does the DLC expand the main story a little bit, but one of the side mission types allows you to progressively unlock agent backstory snippets that are insightful, well-written, and often extremely entertaining to read.

Aesthetically, the game is absolutely superb and gorgeous. In terms of gameplay, the core loop is really addicting and the developers have also improved dramatically on the previous games. Compared to Kingdom: New Lands, this game features lots of quality-of-life fixes, the frequently asked-for AI improvements, a lot of rough edges smoothed over (for example: all unlocked hermits follow you automatically onto the boat, so you can actually make use of their abilities even if their abilities are not all equally useful) a free DLC in a gorgeous feudal Japan setting, and even special challenge islands. I haven't tried coop mode yet but I love that it exists. A lot of love has been poured into this and it shows.
Another addition/change I really enjoy is lighthouses, and the ability to revisit islands without losing all your progress (or, with the lighthouse, even crashing your boat). Sailing around, coming back to existing islands to repair the town or expand its borders or upgrade it or vanquish the Greed when you couldn't before feels a lot more... kingdom-y than in previous games, and it's great.

Most delightful little puzzle/platformer. The core gameplay gimmick of slinging yourself around and building webs is so simple, but so incredibly fun and versatile to work with. Also apparently I've played it for 11 hours, which is more than I was expecting to get out of it... I'd love to see the publisher make more games for this series in the future.

Good game, gameplay does a good job of introducing you to new abilities and enemies at just the right pace, really enjoyed the worldbuilding done through recovered files as well, story was enough to pique my interest and keep me playing on top of the gameplay.

Fantastic mod. Absolutely stellar community effort that works great as a story tie-in. If you'd told me this was an official release, I would have believed you. Story was great and the puzzles were a lot of fun, and all the custom assets - the voice acting, the models, the level design - were top-knotch.

A word of warning for this game.
First time I played it, I couldn't walk straight for two days because apparently I really tense up my back and neck muscles when playing this game and I had a major sprain and couldn't attend a pet's funeral. This happened again recently: I was playing the expert midway DLC mission with hard mode mods on and it lasted over an hour and a half, I was in pain the next day. There's games that keep you on the edge of your seat, and then there's health hazards. :/ I hope Klei will reimburse me for the days of work I had to miss.

If you make the mistake of playing this game, please, take breaks, and make sure you have a good posture before you get sucked into an infiltration session. Klei needs to be more responsible when designing games. :/




Jokes aside, this is the most perfectly-designed game I've ever played, from the gripping gameplay and chess puzzle-like feel of the levels, to the innovative mix of TBS and stealth, to the crisp visual design, music and art style. Though the story and lore are not the main focus, the world and the agent characters are surprisingly rich once you take the time to go digging for the hidden intel on them and start piecing things together. If Klei makes a sequel, I will buy it in a heartbeat. If Klei makes it a comic or an animated series, I will buy it in a heartbeat and probably send them my firstborn child, to boot.

A stunning game that manages to improve on the previous title while staying true to what made it excellent. When I played DH1, it basically restored my faith in big-name video game releases all by itself. I haven't finished DH2 yet, but what I've seen so far has promised me another incredible experience.

DH transports you into an elaborately-crafted, intricate world and keeps you engaged with fantastic gameplay and a gripping story. I can't wait to see what else the game has in store for me.

This game made my dad start to draw in real life

No, really. He's always been an art appreciator and taken a keen interest in it but never dabbled himself. Until this silly game. I bought it for myself because I draw on the side and it satisifed my dream of vicariously living through someone who actually gets rich and famous off their freelancing, and it was surprisingly well thought-through for a small indie game. I started playing with my Wacom tablet and trying to satisfy all the different types of clients and my dad got in on it, as well... like, surprisingly into it. I didn't think anything of it until he started showing me real pencil sketches on paper. For a complete beginner he's really surprisingly good? And he's kept drawing since then.

Thank you, creators of Passpartout, for helping my dad discover a new hobby he didn't know he enjoyed, and probably would never have dared to try without this silly game to bridge the gap. I love you guys.