Recent reviews by anotherphysicsgradstudent

The fundamental problem I had with this game are the controls. Acceleration and deceleration are mapped to the analogue stick, and can't be rebound. I found this a really awkward control scheme, compared to putting these controls on a separate button. The simple act of speeding up while going in a straight line becomes hard because of this; the sensitivity of the analogue stick means you'll tend to veer from side to side. Given that one mistake can easily cause you to crash and restart, this can get quite frustrating.

I actually have quite a few other complaints. But, this isn't my usual genre; I only picked it up as part of a bundle. So I don't want to go too hard with my criticisms. Still, I can't honestly say that I enjoyed myself here, and so I can't recommend.

It's surprisingly fun to burn fictional things.

An enjoyable little puzzle game. It has an interesting gimmick where most puzzles have two solutions, the "good" and "bad", and finding both is required to 100%. On the down side, it's fairly short and doesn't have much replay value.

I'm not a fan. The art style is ugly and not even functional. Enemies blend into the background, given that they're little more than blobs. The gameplay is highly repetitive and shallow. There's no real story, which I wouldn't mind for this kind of game if the gameplay made up for it. At least it's not very expensive.

Positives:

• Very good at hitting the "just one more" feeling
  
• I liked the personality system. I played through multiple times to experience different ones, and they do feel distinct but self-consistent, despite the plot remaining unchanged. Plus I think Yahtzee was on to something in this working better than a standard dialogue tree system.
  
• The (majority of) the crew members were also likeable and well-written. Their stories all follow a common theme, but it never felt repetitive.

Negatives:

• The gameplay could get a bit tedious and repetitive. This is more in the absence of story. With it, you get something that nicely breaks up the narrative and gives the stories room to breath. Without it in the post-game mode, or the post-post-game mode, things get less fun.

Are you looking for a typing tutor that's also an RPG? If so, this will fill your oddly specific request.

The big problem with Chatventures is that it's intended to be a multiplayer game, but is pretty much dead now. As a single player experience, it's fairly bland. There's no overall story; just a collection of what are basically sidequests. Many (most?) are even of the "kill X monsters of this type" form. The writing is pretty basic. Also, while I've enjoyed games with little to no graphics before, those generally had deep gameplay systems. All that really seemed to matter here is how fast and accurately you can type, as you repeat the same command over and over. I didn't get anywhere near to the end, but I didn't feel there was anything new to see.

For its price, Chatventures does offer a lot of game. I almost recommended it on that basis alone. But looking back over my playtime, I think the experience was more tedious than fun.

An enjoyable tactical game; perhaps not the deepest, but I did have fun.

As an FMV game, the gameplay is pretty light, mostly limited to choosing actions from a short list of options. Assuming you are happy with that, the questions become more about writing, performance, and technical details. These are quite good! I enjoyed the little mini-dramas; the stories were interesting and the acting (mostly) compelling. It does a good job of making everything feel smooth and connected, at least on a first playthrough. Overall, I had fun.

This is a good example of something that takes a simple gameplay concept and does it well. You have some simple graphics with little variety, a fairly basic set of options in a turn-based battle system, and no real story to worry about; and I sunk over 50 hours into it before I started to hit diminishing returns. This strength and variety comes from the gameplay. The different heroes, item, and followers ensure that each run feels different enough. The lower difficulties get you warmed up, but the higher difficulties will really challenge you ability to plan ahead and build a synergistic party.

Plus, four years after it's initial release, this is still getting updates; with the most recent free update adding a brand new game mode. Granted, that mode is not that different to what already exists, but it's great to see that type of support from a developer. Definitely worth checking out, unless you completely despise turn-based gameplay.

Vibrant Venture is wonderful.

The gameplay takes standard platforming and executes it very well. The particular gimmick is the ability to switch between different characters with different movement abilities; things like air dashing or wall jumping. This is used very well to offer some really engaging levels and challenges. The difficulty curve is extremely well done, as is the introduction of new mechanics and techniques. This is not the hardest platformer I've played, except for the $%&! speed run challenges, but for me it was at pretty much the perfect level of difficulty.

The presentation is also excellent. The art is beautiful, and the animation is full of little touches. I really like how the four different playable characters all clearly demonstrate their personality through their idle animations, from the keen and excited Banana to the shy and timid Azura. But there are just so many other great little touches like that throughout.

The main weakness with the game right now is that, despite having been in Early Access for four years, it's still incomplete. By my estimate, the game is only about half finished. But, we got a substantial update earlier this year, so I'm optimistic that it will be completed eventually; and, while we currently lack an ending, we have just about everything else to comfortably justify the price. I had a lot of fun here, and heartily recommend.