CannibalBob

This charming little indie game takes your C64 nostalgia and adds its own unique twist. The music alone makes VVVVVV a necessity in any indie gamer's collection.

The unique blend of head-scratching puzzles, twitchy platformer and sweaty-palmed action works really well! The built-in level editor and online level browser is just a bonus to this excellent indie game. The light-hearted story, colourful graphics and memorable tunes really makes Blocks That Matter stand out from other indie games! Highly recommended!

It saddens me to say that id has fallen off the throne as the FPS king. Rage felt like a hodge-podge mix of multiple games, such as racing, adventure/RPG, casual and shooter. With the exception of shooter, the other types of games were below average and felt like tedious wastes of time once the novelty has worn off. It's quite unfortunate, since the FPS aspects were absolutely fantastic! A plethora of weapons and utilities, amazing animations and visceral combat easily made the FPS portion of Rage a must-play for FPS fans. While I was sorely disappointed by this anticipated release, I definitely recommend you grab it in a sale.

Short and stylish with some interesting and unique physics-based puzzles. Indie fans would enjoy this one, but I only recommend picking this up in a bundle!

Even though the physics-based gameplay can be clumsy or frustrating at times, Capsized still offers an enjoyable platforming adventure. Local co-op/deathmatch and Steam achievements leave much more to do after the 6h completion time.

This unique, 2D racing/arcade game is fun to explore and play until the novelty wears off. Awkward controls and timer issues with low-end systems were minor problems for me, but were offset by the graphical style and collectible-grabbing action!

Flawed hack'n'slash-style gameplay offers nothing new or useful to the Action/RPG genre. Unless you enjoy fighting a game's interface most the time, then this is only for impatient Diablo 3 fans!

A spiced-up oldschool shooter with tons of stuff to kill. What's not to like?

Pleasantly satisfying gameplay is combined with beautiful environments, outstanding humor and an interesting and developed story to make Psychonauts a must have for gamepad owners! The memorable adventure at 30 hours completion with 100% achievements on Steam makes Psychonauts quite the bang for your buck.

The puzzle-solving, twitch-based platforming was appealing, but wasn't very challenging and felt aimed at kids. While I enjoyed the music, scenery and fully-voiced and dynamic story, it fell flat due to its brevity.

The new abyss levels add some great new environments and lighthearted humor, along with some new weapons, enemies and multiplayer features. While I ignored the multiplayer portion, I did enjoy the single player parts. Each abyss plays out somewhat methodically, but each is unique in its own way, making it more than just 'extra levels'. With their own story, as well as unique minigame-style challenges, it was a treat to complete each abyss. My overall issue with Raising Hell was that it wasn't challenging, and it didn't feel like an accomplishment to finish. Regardless, it's a great expansion due to the unique levels, and it fit very well into the core game. If you're playing through Overlord, then you should definitely get this expansion while you're playing it!

Being bad never felt this good! Combining third-person action with some tactical strategy, Overlord lets you rampage through a rich, comical, fantasy world, which is no doubt the best part of this game. Some memorable bits are when you get to make a decision - choose a mistress, save the elves, punish the turncoats, etc. Definitely makes you feel like a villain! The exaggerated fantasy stereotypes were awesome - drunken, gold obsessed dwarves, prancy elves, the anti-unicorn... all great fun. One major issue is that there is no in-game map, and sometimes directions are poor. There were times when I literally scoured a level multiple times to find the next plot point! This broke the flow of the game, and made Overlord feel tedious at times. Overlord has an interesting type of gameplay, and can be quite challenging to get really good (ie. no minions die). The game "punishes" your failures in an interesting way, by forcing you to 'grind' for minion souls in the arenas or elsewhere. This is great, because it really makes the game flow so well, compared to the traditional "reload save" or "return to last checkpoint". The challenge in the gameplay lies in micromanaging your minion types. Keeping those blues back so they can revive dead minions is important, but can be difficult due to AI problems. Lock greens down on a flag/guard position, so they can surprise attack enemies for massive damage, but this reduces freedom of movement. This all took some getting used to, and I still had a lot of room for improvement, but I felt that the interface and AI were the weak part of the game. For example, using the right analog stick for manual movement doesn't always move the minions you want - a minion returning to you, for example, will ignore the right stick until he has reached the idle point next to you. Pulling back minions is a constant task, as you're always sending them to loot barrels and crates because they sometimes run the wrong way, into an enemy. Mind you, I was using the xbox gamepad to great effect. Overall, the interface and AI has its quirks, but I never felt frustrated with the game. It's not a very hard game, and once you figure out that losing minions is not a big issue, then it simply becomes a fun and enjoyable experience. If you have a gamepad and want to try something new, then Overlord is for you. The unique gameplay, great sense of humor and exploration will guarantee you'll have a blast!

While I really liked the game's graphics, sound and environment, the gameplay felt lackluster and shallow. Yes, it's just a simple breakout-clone at heart, but I felt that the RPG aspect was vastly underused. Recommended for those from the 8-bit era, looking for a short, but sweet arcade game.

Hard Reset takes a futuristic throwback to brainless, unforgiving shooters of the 90's and blends it with some modern paradigms to give us a polished, enjoyable action-fest! I especially enjoyed the visually spectacular graphics, specifically its detailed environments, bright, colourful effects, discernible enemies and plenty of explosions! Throw in some fast-paced music and bassy sound effects and explosions, and you get a very visceral and satisfying FPS. Being an indie game, I was surprised to enjoy such a smooth and beautiful engine. Some of the modern paradigms worked really well, including the leveling system coupled with nostalgic secret-hunting. Find more secrets, and you're rewarded with better weapons and skills via the leveling system! The only drawback was the checkpoint save system was too restrictive, inhibiting the player from "messing around", and the interface can be laggy, especially when one wants to switch weapons or jump. It took me 7.4 hours to beat Hard Reset on Hard Mode, and was excited that I can replay the campaign to max out my level with an "Ex" mode! Overall, I loved the experience, and really liked the game's design, but felt that it could've been perfect with a smoother interface and less restrict save system.

ARES has a visual style appealing to fans of the old 2D Megaman games, with a futuristic setting featuring robots, lasers, and gigantic scripted bosses - What's not to like? Unfortunately, overly large and uninspired sprites, rushed animations and a forgettable story gave the game a cheap feeling. As for gameplay, if you've played a Megaman game, then you've played this. The addition of mouse control is a greatly appreciated addition, but actually made the game a bit too easy. Repetitive gathering of in-game resources so weapons can be upgraded and purchased simply isn't suited for a fast-paced scroller. Finally, the game is so short, it's over before you know it. It took me 3 hours to beat, with a bit of achievement-huntin' done, too! I only recommend this game in a bundle, but otherwise I'd rather suggest playing one of many old Megaman games instead.

Shank presents well-developed, visceral, beat-em-up goodness in a crystal clear cartoon. A standard revenge story is blown completely out of proportion with a gritty, dark setting chalk full of ridiculously over-the-top muscle-bound brutes. It's awesome, especially since co-op mode doubles things up! Classic beat-em-up gameplay gets refined through simple, intuitive controls, multiple weapons and pickups and challenging boss battles. Acquiring the best weapon (katana) resulted in a drop in difficulty curve, as simply tapping the "leap" attack would guarantee a kill. Length is not a strong point either, as it took 7h to beat both co-op and normal single player. Hard-mode is still an available challenge, but proves to be too much of a hassle because checkpoints are removed. For an indie game, Shank is surprisingly a lot of fun to play. It shows that the extinct Beat-em-up genre can still be fun in modern times. Highly recommended if you like this basic type of arcade game, or simply want a good co-op game!

In a nutshell, Diablo 3 is a well refined Diablo 2 for modern times. Visceral physics-based destruction, awesome monster models, realistic CGI cutscenes, full voice acting and pleasing special effects are all excellent additions to the Diablo franchaise, making the experience that much sweeter. It seems the nearly 11 years of development wasn't enough - some character voice acting (Female barbarian, for example) is terrible, with a lack of enthusiasm and a poorly imitated accent. The story and setting in the final act felt very rushed - the supposedly epic moment in the game featured very small areas, no main city, few monsters, and very rushed story - a lot happens at once, and it all resolves very quickly. The gameplay has a lot of much-needed refinements, notably the flexible and open skill talent system, single-potions removes the annoying potion spam and randomized 'events' add replayability and exploration. The combat is very satisfying and addictive, and looting monsters has never been better! Multiplayer features a lot of improvements, such as achievements, an auction house, simple partying, proper 'exclusive loot' system and cloud support. Unfortunately, Blizzard played it safe in this area, and unless you've never played previous Diablo games, you'll find very little new for gameplay. It's still a click-fest; Blizzard hasn't discovered the wonders of a WASD movement system, though admittedly the 'click area' for monsters is quite forgivable. There were issues around large monsters in trying to move your player instead of attacking - the 'click area' for these demons are usually huge and not very intuitive - I repeat, a WASD movement system would fix this easily. Lastly, the 5 different character classes are vastly out of balance, where the melee classes have very little difficulty, and certain skills are downright trash. Maybe they will be useful in PvP (which was not shipped with the game). Lastly, for $60, Diablo 3 doesn't offer a long game - levels are no longer completely randomly generated a-la Diablo 1, and it only took 17.5 hours to absorb the majority of the game's content! For 11 years of development, a little more substance was expected. The controversial 'always-on' requirement, aimed at reducing game piracy, causes solo players to suffer. Players can now suffer from lag and disconnects, and is not playable when the servers are down. Not the best decision by Blizzard, but it's not as bad as some say, since the game works great when the servers are up. Overall, Diablo 3 is a much-needed refinement to the Diablo games, well deserving of the "III" attached. Highly recommended to Diablo fans, those looking for fast-paced multiplayer co-op mayhem or those interested in the next best PC-exclusive title! Unfortunately, Blizzard played it safe with Diablo 3, with very few major gameplay features added and it still feels like an unfinished product, with a semi-operational auction house, promised PvP and vastly imbalanced gameplay. To end on a high note, Blizzard is known to support their games for years and years, so there's no doubt this review's complaints will become obsolete in the future!

Maybe it's the elegance; the simplicity and clarity, or maybe it's just nostalgia, but I have a soft spot for 2D hand-drawn platformers. Atmospheric with a sense of exploration and adventure, Saira pulls you along with a compelling story of a lost friend in an experiment gone wrong. Unfortunately, it still has an amateur-ish feel typical to indie games. With rather basic gameplay consisting of jump-timing challenges or logical, trial-and-error sliding-tile-type puzzles, Saira leaves much to be desired for those experienced at these types of games. There are some good puzzles in the 4.7h of gameplay. The restrictive engine leaves no flexibility in customizing the obtuse keybindings or at adjusting resolution. Saira will prove to be a fun, short and relaxing adventure for fans of indie platformers, worth playing if found in a bundle.

STALKER's expansive, detailed and living world is enhanced by the eerie atmosphere, bizarre story and downright creepy monsters. The gameplay makes STALKER shine; with challenging, unforgiving, yet supremely satisfying gunplay, the RPG elements littered about include weapon scavenging, quests and random encounters. Ammunition is scarce, so rationing is of utmost importance, and utilizing the day/night cycle to maximize damage with sneak attacks is a common strategy. While quests are enjoyable, they ultimately felt pointless since vendors rarely have ammunition you need, so the earned income was largely worthless. Engine issues would cause corrupted saved games on occasion, and some heavy tweaks were needed to get acceptable graphical settings. Lastly, the weight-based inventory system was beyond restrictive in an un-modded game. STALKER is an amazing game recommended to FPS fans who crave some non-linearity and some serious challenge in their game.

Being a spiced up version of the old Windows game Jezzball makes Fortix 2 easy to start playing. Some spiced up gameplay elements adds more fun and challenge, from dragons, projectiles, powerups and bats. Later levels offer quite a surprising challenge, with powerful black dragons who constantly seek out the player, firing fast projectiles. These challenging levels demonstrate how the gameplay falls apart, where the player must constantly make tiny boxes to proceed, and this quickly becomes tedious. These small tweaks are not enough to make the fundamental arcade-like gameplay any more satisfying. The hand-painted levels and cartoonish graphics support the indie and casual feel of the game, and definitely were a driving force in keeping me playing. The static view of the levels and limited environments depletes this effect. Fortix 2 only took me 3.4h on Steam to complete the mission on Normal. While Fortix 2 is a fun casual game that plays well with a gamepad or keyboard, its only suggested to get in a bundle.

Completed after a meager couple hours of gameplay, Lume plays as a point-and-click puzzle/adventure game, suitable for children. The puzzles are along the lines of basic tile-sliding problems etc. with spots of story-driven objects to click on to read about. While weak in the gameplay area, Lume is appealing with its charming and unique artistic graphics - the 3D-styled area transitions are a wonder to behold! Lume is interesting to try when included in a bundle, but the incredibly short gameplay length makes for a mostly forgettable experience.

Legend of Grimrock delivers in spades with absolutely beautiful graphics, rich atmosphere, great monster design and a simple, but rather forgettable story. The combat is satisfying, but challenging; spotted with brain-teasing puzzles, tons of secrets to unearth, strategic but simple leveling and inventory systems and huge underground levels to explore, LoG was a blast to complete in 22.3h. Being an avid gamer hardened my contention with poor interfaces, but others may not be as blessed: The lack of a "cast last spell" key/button meant combinations had to be punched in every few seconds in combat, spotting secret switches is a tedious chore, and the absence of a mini-map made frequent runs to the health crystal more tedious than it should. Last, some items do not stack which caused some unnecessary inventory clogs. Personally, these flaws added a certain old-school style of charm, since interfaces were not as refined in the 80's and 90's. Overall, Legend of Grimrock is an amazing game for those who love a good old dungeon romp. Highly recommended due to its rich atmosphere, challenging combat and rewarding puzzles.

The charming Tobe's Vertical Adventure surfaces nostalgic memories of Spelunky, but suffers a common indie issue of thin content - forgettable level designs, simplistic monster design, uninspired and repeated cutscenes and repetitive music. The three game modes (coop, Tobe or Nana) serve as a gimmick since level designs do not differ. While controls can be unresponsive at times, the gameplay offers a satisfying - although simplistic and unoriginal - experience for platform lovers. The speedrun achievements offer a challenge to achievement hunters out there, even though they feel like needless and gimmicky padding.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Serious Sam Double D surprised me by being a low price indie platformer with the same sense of humor and very similar game design as the Serious Sam games. That means you should expect tons and tons of monsters, plenty of funny secrets, powerups, traps and straight-forward adrenaline-filled action! What SSDD brings to the table are unique, hand-drawn 2D graphics, platformer gameplay and the fun, but somewhat strategic, gun-stacking feature (equip up to 5 weapons at once). While a little lackluster in the epic battles notorious to the Serious Sam games, and with some minor interface issues such as the camera making surrounding areas difficult to see, and the cursor hard to keep track, SSDD is still a great game recommended to indie action fans or to those who simply want to take a load off.

What appealed to me the most in Toki Tori were the challenging and interesting puzzles - a good puzzle game is difficult to find these days! Each of the four worlds has a unique ability, keeping the game from going stale, while adding a sense of adventure. Don't be fooled by the bubbly music, colourful graphics and childish feel - the bonus/hard puzzles are tough and give a huge sense of satisfaction when a solution is found. Highly recommended for those patient puzzle lovers out there.

Sideway delightfully uses a 3D engine to create a pretty standard 2D platformer, using (toned down) graffiti as the source for the game's graphics and gameplay - it's a pity the musical score drew from the same inspiration. The assortment of familiar gameplay abilities fit naturally in the hands ****, but the absence of adequate challenges to use them in left a lackluster feeling after the 5 hour completion time. 10 were needed to collect all the secrets and achievements, provided you can tolerate the occasional crash. Unless you're a huge fan of platformers or indie titles, then this title is only worth getting in a bundle.

Trine is a beautiful indie co-op platformer, akin to Blizzard's classic Lost Vikings. With stunning visuals, great music and excellent voice acting (the Knight is especially funny to listen to), Trine is no doubt a treat to your senses. Three on-the-fly selectable characters, each with unique abilities, fills the thoughtless void typically native to the genre. A leveling system linked with secret collectibles adds a satisfying, appropriate and very familiar element of replayability. Trine could use some more diverse enemy models, as the Skeleton proved tiresome after the first encounter. Trine's strongest weakness lies in the clumsy-feeling physics-based gameplay, often adding an element of frustrating uncertainty to the movement of your character - thankfully, Trine is not overly challenging (completed in 7 hours, and 100% Steam achievements in 16), but more challenging puzzles and co-op would have been most welcome. Setting the controls for multiplayer, using a standard xbox gamepad, proved to be an unneeded headache. Overall, Trine is a must-have for indie game fans and is highly recommended to platformer fans interested in something unique.

Beat Hazard Ultra is an addon DLC to the arcade shoot-em-up indie title which procedurally generates levels based on your music library. Cold Beam listened to the fans and delivered some much-needed diversity to the powerups and enemy selection, and also multiplayer (local or online)! The new enemies are visually interesting and unique, featuring a squid-like tentacled robot boss, segmented snake 'bots, mine layers, missile ships, ship-inhibiting energy seekers and more. They are all visually and aurally recognizable and satisfying to destroy. The new weapons light up the screen with explosions and noise, and the radio feature means you can discover new tunes while you play. The gameplay's diversity increased greatly with 3 new weapons, the beam, shield and micro missiles. Combining these weapons adds even more strategy and fun to be discovered! The new enemies have unique behaviours and weaknesses, making for much more interesting gameplay. Some new gameplay modes, including coop and boss battles gives so much more to do. The grind needed to max out your perks is still present, and it took me around 24h to acquire them all. Overall, if you even remotely enjoyed the original Beat Hazard, then you owe it to yourself to get this low-price DLC, which beefs up Beat Hazard significantly. The developers were even kind enough to provide a separate executable for running the game in its original state, too!

Beat Hazard is a procedurally generated game based on your music. It does a good job with it, with big flashy explosions, gunfire, enemies and more during high points of the music, contrasted by slow enemies (after the balance patch) and weak gunfire during the lulls. Featuring generic space-based enemies, Beat Hazard does leave a lot to be desired graphically and atmospherically. The overly flashy effects (literally FLASHY) is an annoyance to some gamers, but I enjoyed it and thought it added tension; there is order to the chaos on the screen - it just takes some experience to recognize it. The gameplay is a straight-forward bullet-hell shoot-em-up, featuring a single level-clearing powerup and smaller cumulative weapon strength powerups. Beat Hazard is by no means easy, but eases the difficulty with a simple level-up system, which takes dozens of hours to max out. The enemies are easy to understand, from path-following suicide ships, to crumbling asteroids, to player-seeking armed ships and to the behemoth dividable boss ships. If there's one thing Beat Hazard lacks in gameplay, it's not the fast paced adrenaline-filled action, but the lack of diversity in weaponry, enemies and powerups. Overall, Beat Hazard is a great attempt at an action-music game, with a huge advantage in being able to use your own music library. Highly recommended to fans of indie games or anyone who craves a throwback to arcade games of the 80's.

Great atmosphere, with wonderful animations and an intriguing story. The parkour-style gameplay is addictive and fast paced, and the human crowds are lively, realistic and add an exciting element to the gameplay. Repetitive combat and missions are the drawbacks to Assassin's Creed, peppered with occasional camera and control issues, inherent with third-person open-world action games. Highly recommended, provided you have a gamepad and the hardware to support it!