SB442

Luna Abyss is a surrealist platformer with some realitvely simple combat. The game has some amazing visuals and sound design and the gameplay is serviceable, but rather repetitive. Unfortunately, the story is just an overly convoluted mess, with no sense of drama and characters that are best described as random. The narrative takes up a surprisingly big chunk of the game, so you can't really just ignore it, because the gameplay is not compelling enough in its own, and after a few hours the visuals no longer offered anything new. There is also a very noticeable asset reuse, it's just harder to see the repeating textures, because most of the game is pitch black.

Very stylish, but very repetitive. It's like 95% of the budget went to the art department. The game features some really pretty lighting and environments, however the gameplay feels like the same for most of the experience. The combat is simple and smooth, but really starts to show its cracks when timing actually starts mattering. The animation lock is a pain, and simply doesn't help with samey combat sections. Every fight feels identical. What doesn't help is the incredibly generic cyberpunk story with awful writing and terrible pacing. So much of the game is spent on long winded cutscenes, that feel like something written by someone who is very enthusiastic about writing, but hasn't written anything yet. All in all, perhaps the bar the game set for itself was too high. Or our expectations were.

Amazing artstyle and setting. Heavily reminded me of Bioshock Infinite. Unfortunately the combat is awful and tedious. Enemies feel like bullet sponges, the knife is artificially weak and the encounters feel repetitive. There aren't any tactics or engagement styles, the hallway like level design doesn't allow for more interesting approaches. Shooting doesn't feel good and the blood-bullet mechanic doesn't work that well.

It feels like a template game for a typical roguelike game. There is nothing novel, interesting or memorable here. Everything is just functional and mediocre. I guess it's an ideal numbing game, but so little happens between runs, that it felt like I was playing the same round over and over, because the upgrades barely influence anything. The weapons feel different, so that's nice, but the level design is bland, enemies are boring and the gameplay offers nothing special, that would keep my playing, because the metaprogression is your typical 1% upgrades to meaningless stats. A game should really strive for something more than just being "playable".

Information overload. Designing a game where shooting and movement matters, and then adding so much particle effects that actually understanding and reading situation is impossible is a bold move. This game would be a competent shooter, but it simply doesn't know restraint. Every encounter showers the players with various meaningless upgrades and 10 new weapons, that don't meaningfully differ from the one you have in your hand right now. The whole thing just felt mindless, as if conscious decisions are impossible, because the choices are meaningless. The art style and visuals are competent, nothing special.

Ultimately it's the same Vampire Survivors clone, except the graphics are better and the metaprogression is somewhat more interesting. That being said, the lack of gameplay still bothered me here. There is very little of it, so the game still felt like lipstick on a pig, because ultimately it was luck that decided what pretty effects will spawn around my character. Even the unlockables are pretty tame. They feel like cool things but don't really change up the gameplay much. ...and unfortunately that put me to sleep.

Turn your brain off Vampire Survivors clone. Nothing innovative to see here.

Nice roguelike with cool gunplay and some fun abilities. Unfortunately, it just doesn't offer enough novelties and does not reinvent any aspect of genre. This results in repetition quite fast and random chance was guiding most of my game sessions, sadly. The unlockables are not as interesting as they should be and metaprogression feels rather slow and all runs essentially start at the exact same place, so it never feels like I was gaining power or abilities during my last playsesssions. There is no story, no real quests or interesting objectives that could have spiced up the monotony of the gunplay. I was the progression system was a bit more interesting and engaging.

Somewhat fun, but quite repetitive experience. Unfortunately, it was the combat that just didn't click with me after a while.

Pretty nice storywise and the minigame gameplay is fine too. It feels more like a story than a game, but there is no problem with that, since it's a quite well written adventure, where the characters carry an otherwise very cliched superhero adventure. Much better than even the golden days of Telltale. The visual design and voice over work is just the cherry on top.

Really nice visuals, but the gameplay feels half finished. The combat is awkward and clunky, animations are amateurish and there is no depth to the enemies or interesting mechanics to consider. Level design is just a hallway and there is nothing else besides the nice models.

I really enjoyed the subtle horror present in the demo, but the full game is basically mostly the demo and a few more incredibly boring and maze like sections, that simply put me to sleep. The game never reaches the heights of its first area, most of your time is spent in identical tunnels and caves. The story is uninteresting the gameplay is basically just walking and there is nothing else here to recommend.

Atmospheric, but very hard to follow walking simulator with some light puzzles. The story is way to convoluted to be engaging, and unfortunately that turns the entire game into a boring walking sim. The visuals are nice, loved the folk horror aspect, but I just couldn't care less about the story.

Plays a bit like a mix between Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal. It was definitely fun and cathartic with some technical issues, but it does get pretty repetitive after a while, since the combat loop is simply not complex enough, and most of it just comes down to shooting enemies with A or B weapon. I couldn't care less about the story, it seemed really cringeworthy and cliché, I was only here for the combat. There are a few interesting upgrades and a Doom Eternal like shield gathering system, however most of the battles are way too frentic and chaotic and just cycling through weapons usually gets the job done. Weapons sadly feel very similar, both in terms of effect and looks. Their upgrades are the only interesting aspect of the game, but ammo starvation is sadly a thing in the game, and as far as I can tell, there is no reliable way to gather ammo from enemies. Environments also blend together. Seen one scifi hallway, seen them all. Often the level design is also the same. Played this on a harder difficulty, so I could get some decent challenge, but most of the game just comes down to shooting and moving. Because for some reason the AI will attack you from the back constantly and during an attack you are basically pushed usually in a corner. This felt rather frustrating, especially since these enemies are quite silent. Overall, it was okay, could have been better. I couldn't finish it, because it became too repetitive.

It's true that the devs looked back at old boomer shooters, because they really added nothing new or in any way interesting. This is a turn your brains of boomer shooter.

I liked the game's look and general aesthetics, but these puzzles really stopped the pace for me. Way too obscure, way to hard to find. The horror element turned into a slow and boring escape room game.

Incredibly repetitive. I just felt bored after my third run, because this feels more like a bad roguelike.

Haste has an amazing gamefeel. Speeding, movements, the world design all work amazingly. However, as a rougelite, it just doesn't work at all. There is no replayability in the levels, the grand majority of every run feels identical. Nothing changes for the most part, making the whole thing really dragged out and repetitive. Should have focused on a tighter experience.

Typical boomer shooter stuff. Every level plays the same, there really is nothing unique or novel here. The upgrade system barely influences anything and level design is nothing to write home about. That doesn't mean the shooting isn't good, It's a very cathartic power fantasy, but the is no variation and every weapon works for every enemy. I was just a bit bored after a few levels.

This is a ghost train ride. We are thrown in random, visually striking scenes with little to no gameplay elements. Besides some light number counting puzzles, and forced running sections there is not much interactivity here. The story is an overly convoluted mess, almost all of the aesthetics feel more like "this looked cool" instead of "this makes sense in this world". I just kinda lost interest, because there didn't seem to be much progression story or gameplay wise. This isn't a horror game, it's a walking simulator with creeoy visuals and random horror references.

I found my experience mostly just frustrating. Terrible control scheme, difficult to understand mechanics and just a very boring time. Once you get going the game is slightly fun, but it runs dry fairly quickly.

Mostly boring walking sim with nice graphics and cool setting. The art style and general design is coherent, it's thankfully not just an asset flip, but the slow walk speeds and generic elements were rather tedious.

Voidborn is a roguelike, that starts out pretty great, but falls into mediocrity soon after. Unfortunately, there is simply not much variety to its combat. The upgrades are small marginal changes and seem to effect the overall gameplay quite similarly, it doesn't really matter with upgrade I chose. The ultimate ability seem to be trump card of the game, as it allows to output so much damage, it can remove one fifth of a bosses health instantly. While the shooting and movement felt good, the game simply lacks variety. The environments look samey and runs are barely different, due to the low number of rooms. A roguelike 2025 has to offer something more than this.

Basically RNG: the game. The Blue Prince is all about finding rooms and exploration, however it is 100% luck-based. I got close to the end room a few times and the game just would not give me a room that actually connected to it. This was not a fun challenge, it was incredibly discouraging and after a while the game became repetitive and tedious, because there really aren't that many mechanics to keep things interesting. Puzzles are simple, once you understand them, the item economy is boring, because there aren't enough modifiers for me to care. There is a story, but it seems to be completely separate from the rest of the experience, and the mystery is not relevant to the puzzles, as far as I can tell. It's just a lot of window-dressing. I don't know why critics are raving about this, the game feels paper thin.

Feels a bit unpolished and raw, like a game jam project with a cool idea, that never had the amount of care and attention it should have had. The gameplay mechanic is unique and trippy, but its use feels so mundane and boring and sadly the same applies to the overly cryptic story, that is weird just for the sake of being weird.

I feel like I have seen this before. Quirky, hippy people talking about nothing with shallow combat and clunky movement and puzzles that aren't more complex than a traffic light. I wish the game had more Austrian influences and at least one unique mechanic. I was just kinda bored by the exhaustingly tedious, and safe conversations, that felt like the talks I had with my coworkers the first time I met them. There is just too much of this here and the combat is too undercooked and repetitive to balance this out.

A bit on the simple side in terms of gameplay and puzzle design, but it has a good looking artstyle going for it and the visuals are remarkable coherent.

Children of the Sun is a pretty simple trial and error game. It feels like a gamejam game, with the visuals receiving and insane amount of polish and care. The gameplay on the other hand is a bit limited. Still, it was a fun experience with an interesting limitation, even though it did get a bit too repetitive after a while.

The game is a nice and chill walking sim, with some slightly interesting folklore turned into basic puzzle gameplay. The visuals steal the show and they elevate the relatively mundane slice of life scenes by infusing them with some magical property. Mostly particle effects. The story didn't really grab me, it felt more exploration focused, but the gameplay loop is quite repetitive.

Nice atmosphere and visual design, but there is simply very little game here to actual engage with. The gameplay and narrative is just too limited for me to care, the worldbuilding is almost non existent and the interactions feel like a roll of dice than brainteezers. However you solve the puzzle, it doesn't really matter. The game is also surprisingly easy, never once did I come close to dying, which is at least nice, because the gameplay is so basic, I was already bored by my second hour.

It seems these days any game can get a trailer on ign. This feels like a project by a few first timers, who had no game experience before this. Unfortunately, they were also quite bad at copying other horror games, so Paradise's Secrets is a terrible experience. No idea where the Steam positive reviews are coming from, no-one should purchase this game, there are better free horror games on ****. First and foremost, the controls are absolutely awful, there are a way too many bugs and glitches, and the game just feels awful to play. There are monster monster sections, where you have to hide in poorly placed cabinets, but half the time the interact key didn't even trigger, so you have to do this awkward dance to figure out when the game registers your cursor, when a monster is chasing you. The game has no visual identity, just a bunch of asset store elements thrown together, with zero coherence. Some tables are neck high, whoever placed them in the environment didn't bother to test it at all. There is some story, but it's not worth engaging with.

Solar Ash feels more like a mobile game. A fun mobile game, but in terms of mechanics there is nothing particularly too deep here. It feels like it's a game for people, who aren't gamers, yet it's weirdly difficult. However the difficulty is entirely movement and timing based, so there is nothing to get better at, really. The level design is pretty nice and movement is fluid and smooth right until the game starts dropping frames like crazy. Solar Ash is optimized terribly and that really pumps the breaks in an otherwise incredibly fast paced adventure. The bigger issue is, that I got bored by the third area of this type of gameplay. Maybe for people who like to collect stuff this works, but I found the story too abstract and the collectibles uninteresting. Sadly, it outstays its welcome and it's minimal boss fights are too challenging for absolutely no reason.

Blood West is close to being good, but ends up being just simply frustrating and boring. It feels like the immersive elements don't really allow for much experimentation, meaning most encounters had to be completed with as little resource lost as possible. Environments are generic western situations and the enemies are nothing to write home about. There is just not enough here, the pickups barely effect the gameplay and most of the gameplay felt very samey. I wanted to try alternative approaches, but that's not really possible, so the game is more like a linear stealth shooter in the Hunt universe.

Awesome movement and combat system. Great choice of weapons, although they don't feel significantly different. The environment is what does most of the heavy lifting. It does get repetitive after a while, but the combat is just so fun, that jumping back after a few days is seamless. I just wish the shooting or the enemies had a bit more depth, right now most enemies don't require specific strategies. Your strategy is basically moving as erratically as possible, because enemies are hard and predict your movements fairly well. Unfortunately, the game doesn't introduce enough new stuff and runs out of steam before the halfway point. The new weapons don't feel significant and the upgrades are unnoticeable. Sadly, this drops a great game into the "good" pile.

Battle Shapers is an okay roguelike, that doesn't reinvent the wheel, but has solid gunplay and gameflow. The upgrades are slightly interesting, but different weapons and abilities do alter the gameplay somewhat, although you'll be mostly shooting at whatever that moves constantly. The game gets harder, the further you progress, and at some point bosses put out so much damage, that they instantly take you entire shields off. The only engaging mechanic the game has is the glory kill system from Doom, that grants you extra shields, but this is very unreliable. Triggering this mechanic doesn't always work, and most enemies are very bullet spongy, so I ended up just mindlessly shooting them for minutes. The combat isn't deep enough to support the gameplay for too long. Enemies are distinct and fun to take down, but that gets old after the first few hours. I wish there was a bit more depth to the game. Artstyle is nice, and so are the animation and sound effects. The progression system is rewarding, almost every run has something new to show you, however the unlockables are not that interesting, and after the first few abilities, I just couldn't care about them. The only thing that matters is their damage anyway, and that's tied to your level progression.

Not much is happening here. Basically a simple walking sim, with no other features. Just walk through typical liminal space environments, basically identical to 95% of these backgrooms/pool games. Mostly boring with very few interesting visuals. The game has no story, has no message, no narrative of any kind. I'd not play this.

It's an okay roguelike... It does try to do new things, but they barely influence the game and don't meaningfully alter runs. The game is just really really grindy. The rooms are alright, but the bosses, especially the second boss seem badly designed, getting damaged is pretty much a guarantee, because the game throws so much stuff at you. Acquiring updates takes so long, and you have to upgrade the upgrades for them to actually help out. The weapons all feel cool to use and the melee weapons actually change how you engage with enemies, although I almost never used the charge attack, because it takes way too long to charge. Enemy variety is nice at first, but the game really wants you to play it for hours and hours and it just gets tiring after a while. Didn't bother to finish the game, it's just too grindy and runs take far too long and they don't always end with the feeling that you achieved something. Unlocking a new suit, is not an interesting update.

The atmosphere of this game is amazing and really drew me in. Seeing some gigantic structure looming in the background that you actually climb 15 minutes later is a one of a kind experience. Overcoming odds and doing the impossible is what this game is about. The platforming is very generous and the quickload system made most of the climbing pretty painless. What I had an issue with was the backtracking. At some point I had to gather some things for an NPC and after scaling through giant pipes in unimaginable heights the game just told me to go back down the same way again. Going down took a good chunk of 20 minutes and I had zero desire to replay that entire bit. The story justification is basically non-existent and the climbing only facilitates the amazing vistas. I don't want to go through the same thing again, so that's when I just quit.

It's unplayable without a controller. Kinda sad, I was looking forward to this.

Very much a step back from all the innovation and amazing gameplay design the original game brought to the table. Levels feel more like obstacles now, they are more random and you don't feel like you've solved the combat puzzle, when you finish an area. The game is tough, but it's more based on random chance than anything else, since you can't replay levels. I don't think the new roguelike design added much to the gameplay. The new features feel like content for a DLC, there is just not enough novelty present to justify the game. The core gameplay is fun and exciting, but doing the same stuff in the same few environments over and over again felt very tiring. It's like the game is fighting with you, and it always feels like you are just a few more replays away from the next cool thing, that never really arrives.

It's just another autoshooter with almost no player control or variation. They only thing you can do is have an enemy always in your crosshairs while slowly moving backwards on a small map. There is a certain spectacle to having multiple weapons on screen all doing their thing, but after a few rounds the novelty wears off, and you're left wondering what exactly is it that you do as a player here. Roguelikes should be about mastery, about learning enemies and making run-altering decisions. The only decision here is about how much gun you want in your screen at any given time. There is no real combat tactics or decision making, besides moving around. Unfortunately, this makes the game a bit boring. The upgrades and progression is similarly bland, we have the typical "2% increase in your stat" thing, which is just so dated at this point. Games like Returnal already perfected the formula with engaging progression mechanics, this feels like a step back. I get that this is a good way to cash in on name recognition and to the game's credit, it's very playable and looks nice, but it's more for people who want to turn their brains off during gaming.

I am very surprised this game was as good as it was. It has some jank, sure, but not nearly enough to break it and its level design is exceptional. The game basically has two giant environments, one open world and one linear. These areas are interlooping and provide great shortcuts. Combat is basically soulslike but in fps, and it works surprisingly well. Weapons feel different and enemies hit hard, but it works, because the game has a generous bonfire system, so it's not as demanding as Dark Souls. I really enjoyed learning enemy attack patterns and learning the level layout and enemy locations. It's indie, but it has interesting mechanics, and distinct enemies with a cool art style. The final part on the other hand felt like an afterthought, the game runs out of its ideas and just adds old enemies. Kinda anticlimactic, but overall pretty nice game.

Painfully average. I understand that one guy made it, but the end result isn't very impressive. Seeing London locations was the only thing that was somewhat interesting. The combat is a chore, gameplay is a collection of every horror game you've ever played. I got bored by the bullet spongy enemies, they aren't interesting to engage with and the save system is pretty bad too. The movement system is especially terrible, running feels awkward. The optimization is quite subpar.

I've tried, but the combat is not fun, it's just messy and chaotic. It's impossible to read enemy movements, because your screen is constantly covered by various effects, blood and explosions. I barely saw myself getting hit, because the combat is just so random. The enemies look cool, but you can shoot them or hit them or slow down time. It's just too surface level and repetitive. Just like most of the environments. They all feel empty and basic, just barely more complex than a prototype level. Don't recommend this.

The movement system is pretty bad, and the game feels very janky. Even running is slow and shooting is very lackluster.

Unfortunately, very buggy, and the gameplay doesn't really evolve beyond the Half Life inspiration.

God of War Ragnarok was good, but it wasn't nearly as good as God of War 2016. The main issue is actually the story, more specifically a lack of a connecting theme and a lot of giant pacing issues. Unlike last time, where almost every side story and main story had an overarching arc of family and relationships, Ragnarok feels like it's all over the place. There is some talk about fate and defining one's destiny, however there isn't an actual commentary on the topic, and characters don't feel like they can actual change any outcome. There is also a lack of twists or surprises, and the ones in the game barely change anything in terms of character growth. Ragnarok does feature really well written characters and scenes with above average dialogue, especially Odin, Thor and Freya work incredibly well. Despite him being a kinda bad villain, Odin is probably the most entertaining character and he steals every scene he is in, even if the story barely has things for him to do. I expected a lot more interactions between the characters, more mischief and more of what Ragnarok is about, which is the death of most Asir gods. That doesn't really happen sadly, and the story really lacks stakes and dramatic elements in its second half. The pacing is a bigger issue, why was it more easy to recruit Surtr, the catalizator for Ragnarok, than to defeat some random side mini boss? We barely see Odin do anything bad and all we hear are people talking about him. The game starts strong, but becomes very repetitive in the middle and incredibly rushed by the end. There are cool story moments, like the celestial hounds encounters, or Getrude's life or Tyr's personality, but these elements don't form a theme and feel like a series of unrelated side missions. Ragnarok's gameplay is fine, it's more or less the same as its predecessor with even some of the same enemies and moves that you unlock all over again. The combat itself is very restrictive, everything depends on your level, you can't fight foes with higher levels efficiently. The combo, and elemental magic system adds some depth to the combat, and enemies are very generous and they usually let you execute your combos, however some mini bosses have simply far too much health and fighting them becomes a bit repetitive. You can't really use any tactics against these, if you have a lower level, your damage output will be so small, that fighting them is not worth the energy. Overall, stick to the main missions, then the combat is fine. Side content feels imbalanced, and the wanderer bosses aren't well designed. That being said, there is a lot of content here, lot of characters, lot of side missions, lot of scenes. But these feel like many separate adventures, instead of one.

Fantastic roguelike, with cool weapons and nice metaprogression. The varied encounters and rooms keep things fresh, but as always circle strafing is your friend.

Unfortunately, the sequel was not nearly as great as its predecessor. Ziggurat 2 feels average and very repetitive. There aren't great weapon synergies or unique weapon combinations or unlikely enemies with strange mechanics. You just point and shoot and that's it. Upgrades are your typical 3% increase in Mana consumption, which just feels lazy and uninspired. The devs didn't look at other cool roguelikes for inspiration and went with the most basic, boring approach. Every run feels the same, because almost all the weapons felt the same. The character abilities are near useless. Like why would I push a few enemies away?

Perfectly mediocre shooter. Has nice enemy design and effects, but has no depth, no interesting mechanic, no unique element to differentiate itself from other shooter. There are abilities and a skill tree, but most upgrades are boring or invisible (like a gun outputting more damage). The abilities are similarly boring, the only one that's useful, is the one that gives you more health. Some of these belong in a completely different game, like the broom, that stuns enemies. Like why would you every get close to dangerous enemy and stun them? Why not just shoot him with the shotgun, the only useful weapon in the game? Level design is boring, the general aesthetics feels unfinished, but the game has enough content for like 3-4 hours, after that it's gonna start to feel very repetitive.