Recent reviews by Vivalas

Agree with others that it's a step down from Lacuna, but that's not to say it's bad. Both games are pretty good, I just think Lacuna has better pacing and higher stakes. Maybe it's just me but I didn't feel as emotionally involved with the outcome of the game other than getting the ending that I think was the good one (which I think I did).

Which brings me to the next issue: like Lacuna, it's pretty hard to explore multiple endings unless I'm missing something. Once you complete the game for the first time it should just let you backtrack as needed to explore the alternate endings.

Game suffers from some issues with backtracking in general and the next steps not being immediately clear, but I don't think this is necessarily an issue. Take some time to stop and review clues and most of the puzzles are able to be deduced. I think the non-linearity of the game is a step up from Lacuna and makes it feel a bit more immersive.

None of the puzzles seem all that contrived or too difficult. I managed 9/10 and some other people mention the one I didn't solve and unless we're all missing something I think the Paper Trail puzzle is a bit strange, in that the logical answer isn't the correct one. Again, could be a skill issue, but whatever.

Overall would give this one a 8/10. Great title from a developer who I hope keeps making these awesome story games. Can't wait to see what they implement in the next one (hopefully there will be a next one).

I broke down somewhere right after the second boss and started crying. This game is a beautiful masterpiece and touches on the human experience in ways I can't explain. It has an incredibly deep and emotional story for a rhythm game, and fantastic music to boot.

11/10, can't recommend enough.

Amazingly fun and addictive game with all kinds of fun challenges and mysteries and a very satisfying gameplay loop. Can get repetitive at times, but that's fine, because it makes a pretty good "coffee break" game if you can trust yourself not to get addicted and play longer than your schedule allows ;)

On that note: devs, when are you making your next game? Card Survival: Tropical Island implies that this is just one game of a potentially very successful series, so I'm eagerly awaiting what comes next.

I can't say much more about it then already has been said. Played it for years. Will play it for years. Will probably never stop getting worked on and we're just starting to get to the best parts of the roadmap!

The core gameplay isn't bad, it's just, well, the game doesn't work. Also, I have no idea why the videos shown here present the game to be so dynamic and teamwork based. Callouts are repetitive. You get the same ones over and over and they're simple. They certainly don't require the level of teamwork shown on the videos here.

Additionally, well, the game just doesn't work. It's not very well optimized. The visual complexity is very low, yet, the game takes forever to render in front of you. I can turn up render distance and my computer runs at low utilization, and... well, it still doesn't render. There's also horribly desync issues on multiplayer, which is even worse, since it continually makes the one selling point of the game (playing with friends) untenable. I've tried to play with my brother two or three times over the past few days now and multiple times there's been moments where he says I'm 1.) not where I am 2.) interacting with people he can't see etc.

I can get past the relative simplicity and repetitiveness of some of the missions. The multiplayer aspect would make up for that. Unfortunately, that doesn't work either. Syncing game state between clients is like, the one thing you actually need to do right with netcode, and it just doesn't work in this game.

If it worked, I would give it a thumbs up. At the moment, I wouldn't recommend paying money for this unless you like paying money for games that don't work. Hopefully the dev is well and able to fix it, but it's been out for a while and instead of, say, fixing bugs, we get meaningless bloat like more car customization options and... customizable lights (???).

As a procrastinator and game dev, I can understand wanting the flashy bits. But I also think it's mostly for appearances. The dev either doesn't know or doesn't care to fix the many glaring issues with the netcode, so he instead focuses on trinkets.

I've played this game a looong time. Before it was ever on steam, and before Paradox ever had its grimy hands on it.

It's not terrible, but now if you buy it expect the typical Paradox treatment. Countless costly DLCs that add very little, but that also lock QOL features behind paywalls that should have been in free updates, as they release free "updates" alongside the DLC with some (few) QOL features to entice people to stick around for their ponzi scheme.

It's not a bad game, but I can't give a positive review to a Paradox game. It's a shame they're still in business really, with sooo many other good games out there with free updates and feature-complete releases that you don't have to pay for. So while I like this game and always think it will be a good game, it's general stability and quality have gone down as its been turned into yet another Paradox cash cow.

Give your money to a developer that deserves it.

Beautiful. Up there with Outer Wilds in games that probably can change your life and the way you view the world.

Don't want to spoil it toooo much, but the game has a similar preface to Life of Pi.

Incredibly in-depth and engaging gameplay. Hours of tweaking and design. Engineering bliss. So many different concepts in my head, and all I lack is time to implement them. A game that keeps on giving, and the longer you play it, the more crazy ideas you get.

And they call it an "Alpha" still.

Also, notice most of the negative reviews aren't actually anything bad about the game. Mostly about it being too complex and not wanting to put in the time to learn it. That says more about the reviewer than the game, so give it a shot. It's extremely rewarding once you get the basics down.

Amazing game. Way more interesting, immersive, and beautiful than Civilization, although I think both games are different enough to warrant only a comparison rather than a "x is better than y".

A lot of the reviews here seem to fundamentally misunderstand the game, and thus they give it a negative review. I can't blame them, because it's very opaque. The tooltips leave out essential info. There's lots of things that surprise you and you had no way of knowing how they worked. I had to google a LOT to understand some things that could have easily been 1-2 sentence tooltips that would have vastly improved the flow of the game.

Combat is the simultaneously in my opinion both the best and worst part of the game. It's where the most things are opaque, where the strangest things can happen, but also so so so much more satisfying and tactical and meaningful than civ combat.

Trade is awesome: the game very greatly simulates the advtanges of trade and your reliance on global trade. I'm generally a warmonger in these types of games but in my instance focusing on buying every single resource in the world was way more beneficial to me for most of the game than waging war (where waging war would have severely crippled my economy at that point due to my reliance on trade).

Diplomacy is interesting but has a few issues. There needs to be more wargoals (like releasing another empire's vassal) and some tweaks, but I think the war score thing is fine. I think the issue a lot of people has is that they come from Civilization and not Paradox games when approaching this title. This game plays and feels like a cross between Paradox Grand Strategy and Civ and so for that reason it's a natural fit for me but others may not enjoy it.

Overall solid game. The game just changes and evolves so much over the ages, which has always been the most appealing part of civ-building games: how the game mechanics change over time.

That being said it has lots of minor issues and bugs. Recommend waiting for sale and probably waiting longer for the game to be fleshed out, as it feels like an early beta to me right now, but I can see it becoming a gem in the long run. I think devs released it a bit too early, but I still love it.

I came. I gouged my eyes out to please the elder gods. I conquered.