Recente recensies door Ghostie

ToriDori is a casual 3D ‘spot the difference’ with a low poly style which will have you travelling through 20 different worlds. With an achievement that involves petting a cat, it seems as though this dev knows exactly what I’m looking for (this is in no way an integral part of the core gameplay but certainly appreciated).

Difficulty feels reasonably balanced neither blindingly easy nor impossible, it’s mostly focused on the little details and stays fairly linear throughout most of the game with no repercussions for missing clicks (other than gaining some achievements). There is also a timer based hint system that will present a circled area where your missing object lay. The game can be played entirely using the mouse but also has keyboard controls for moving and rotating a scene around.

Each world is split into two levels, often telling a small environmental story between them before moving on. Scenes are static but busy and vibrant. From restaurants to supermarkets and mermaids to the wild west - each world focuses on a different theme with music to match. Multiple scenes were set around Christmas which was a little bit weird to play in April but otherwise the game is very cute. Scenes start with 5 differences to spot between them, later levels expand in size and can have up to 20 differences.

A full playthrough of this game took me approximately 2 hours including earning all the achievements, a chill experience I thoroughly enjoyed and recommend for anyone who wants a simple relaxing puzzle or hidden object style game.

Tap Ninja is an incremental game styled as an endless runner - clicking when you reach an enemies location to kill them and earn gold. It’s partially automated and you can control when that automation happens. Like many games of this type, you proceed so far before you need to reset your progress to continue. In the beginning progress felt like it was a breeze but the point of the game I am now at feels like it has slowed to a crawl. That's fine, it's just how these types of games are.

There are additional objectives included to spice things up from the grind and give extra incentives, these include: daily quests for gold bonuses; weekly challenges (which feel a bit like a bare bones rhythm section for more gold); an in-game achievement system which gives bonuses to the gameplay as you earn more; pets which you can swap out (depending on your playstyle they give different bonuses and can be levelled up and bonded with for extra boosts). Completionists be aware there are two Steam achievements considered near impossible according to some in the steam discussions. Updated 24/04/2023 - Two achievements temporarily removed.

Recently added to the game are limited timed holiday events with extra tasks to do and earn some little bonuses. Initially they seemed like fun, a nice change of pace from what is otherwise a daily grind for tiny progress but they now come across as preying on FOMO. Most of the tasks are still some form of grind but the most worrying are tasks that require you to spend ‘Amber’, the real money currency.

In the event for ‘Pi Day’, there was a task that required you to spend at least 2,500 amber. Assuming you manage to complete all 25 holiday tasks you will have 1,925 returned to you, a net loss of 575. In theory it is possible to grab the one limited edition cosmetic item without spending on the amber tasks but some of the tasks are impossible for new players to even attempt regardless of whether or not they spend additional ‘amber in the shop on boosts (it took me until the last day and cut it really close.)
The ‘April Fools’ event was slightly generous, allowing 2,110 return for 2,000 amber invested if you’re able to complete all the tasks however the most recent ‘Easter’ Event has you needing to spend a whopping 2,500 amber for 1,700 return leaving you with a loss of 800 amber! (Tasks I still consider impossible for new players returned for both of these.)

‘Amber’ can be earned without spending a penny but it’s very slow, random and requires a bit of luck. If you can get a pet mouse or dragonfly to level 10, whilst equipped they will generate +4 Amber every 4 hours. I don’t have a single pet at that level yet and holiday events are almost immediately after one another so there isn’t much of a chance to actually save up more amber for events.

This isn’t to say that I think there should be zero monetisation nor that you shouldn’t support the developer but I honestly believe that it is currently being implemented poorly and heading in a bad direction, which is a shame because up until now I really liked this particular background game (and had actually purchased the VIP bundle). At least my cats still enjoy watching it.

What did I just play? No, seriously.

You find yourself on a beautiful tropical island, the native population is happy and dancing and you get to explore and enjoy the scenery. Honestly beyond that description you’ll have to play it for yourself. It’s only ten minutes long, so not worth spoiling, and the achievements are all very easy to find if that works as an incentive.

As for the question in the description - ‘Can a video game convey a flavor?’ If that flavor is pure horror, then yes. You have succeeded. I’ll still be putting pineapple on my pizza though. 🍍🍕

My Dream Setup is a room designing sim. It has the same sort of lo-fi vibes as Chill Corner (of which it is most similar), Virtual Cottage and Kind Words. Only difference is, there appears to be just one song that is infinitely looped.

There is a decent number of object choices but they don’t always fit together quite how you would expect them to be - this is particularly noticeable with placing plants and books on shelves. Smaller items (such as ornaments and plushies) are lacking in content. I tried to make a replica of my own room but there were no fireplace options so I ended up putting a table with some flowers on top. It would be nice to have the ability to import user made content through the Steam workshop.

The ‘blueprint mode’ in the game allows you to change the shape of the room, so long as that shape is a rectangle. The game also offers multiple save slots for multiple rooms.

User interface is straightforward mostly using pictographs and the controls are decent but there’s no key rebinds. You can rotate the room using q/e on the keyboard and zoom with the mouse scroll. Every other control is just simple clicks of the mouse but could definitely do with an option to copy items and/or colour schemes.

Most of the achievements are very grindy and probably not something the average person will earn through natural play. There is also an achievement which requires you to post your room to a connected Twitter account.

What an utterly chaotic experience, in a good way, and all woven together with a story about needing coffee and making video games. Sticker is a linear collection of bizarre minigames that consist primarily of shooter and platforming segments but there’s a whole mixture of experimental mechanics and ideas going on.

Due to the random nature, difficulty is a bit all over the place. It’s definitely not impossible but there were parts which had me retry more than a handful of times to finally pass and then some sections that could probably be done with eyes closed. With that being said, the controls are solid and responsive, so any deaths that happened definitely were my own fault and it’s quick to jump back into the action.

The game is creative, absurdist and absolutely unafraid to break the fourth wall. The humour may not be for everyone but it definitely has hilarious moments. I don’t think there is much replayability outside of the missable achievements and it is a very short experience with under one hour needed for a playthrough.

Best way I can describe Berry People is a very lightweight ‘Toem’. A short quirky photography game about exploring and collecting pictures of sentient berries, most of which are camera shy. There’s no puzzles or quests but there are a couple of hidden mini-games and secrets to be found.

The camera doesn't have a zoom function and you can’t move whilst holding the camera out and as such quick reflexes are needed to photograph many of the berries. Photos are graded with a basic rating system, the best photos are awarded ‘star’ quality. It didn't always make sense and was a bit inconsistent - I had many photos of berries where you cannot see the berry (even partially) that were marked as ‘star’ when other photos that looked better were considered mediocre or didn’t count as photos of a berry at all.

I really love the aesthetic it has going on, everything looks like it was drawn with paint but it works however many of the areas do look very samey! I think it should also be noted, I had some visual bugs occur where objects/scenery started flickering in and out of existence. I don’t think it is intentional but I am also not 100% certain.

It’s a simple game with simple mechanics and honestly, it doesn’t need to be much more. A chill game with good vibes all round. Even though I got mildly lost, just under two hours was needed to earn all the achievements.

Looks fun but I got stuck on an infinite loading screen after pressing play. :(

Quadrata is a minimalist top-down ‘ice rink’-style puzzle game, split into two sides of which both are controlled simultaneously. With 90 cleverly designed puzzles in total, new mechanics are introduced regularly so the gameplay never gets stale.

The player moves in four directions and won’t stop until they hit a wall or another solid object. Each level has a set number of moves that the goal must be reached or the level automatically resets. Difficulty starts out easy and the challenge is gradual. There are no tutorials, the levels allow the player to learn naturally by doing.

This game is also available for free on alternate stores but is otherwise a chill title with about 2 to 3 hours of gameplay.

I was wrong about Fallout 76. I had completely dismissed this entry into the series years ago and I probably would never have played it, if it weren’t for friends and the Humble Choice. I vaguely remember the criticisms from its launch and they are still completely valid. It’s a typical Bethesda game absolutely filled to the brim with bugs (and I’m not talking about the radroaches!) but I would be lying if I said this game wasn’t fun.

Gameplay
Approaching this game expecting heavy rpg choices will leave anyone disappointed, this is no FNV. However what it does well is bring a light Fallout theme park to a multiplayer action format. Actually seeing other players in the world makes it feel alive, playing with friends is a blast. There is always an event going on and combined with the folklore, culture and mythology of Appalachia this creates for a very engaging and unique experience.

You can play in first or third person and solo or in teams of up to four persons. It’s very easy to join random teams and doing so provides more benefits even if you never play together. For world events you don’t even need to join a group, just so long as you’re in the area you will get credit for completion.

There is a lot of flexibility in character choices. Beginning is limited but it doesn’t take long to start collecting enough levels to unlock perks cards and skill points. Perks can be changed on the fly (literally mid-battle if needed) and don’t worry about spending skill points either because they can be changed at a dedicated machine infinitely.

The most prestigious loot is randomised and can have between one to three extra traits. ‘Legendary’ items can’t be scrapped like ordinary items but can be traded in for currency specifically related to rerolling traits and purchasing more legendary weapons.

There is a moderately deep crafting system which mostly revolves around the collection junk, just enough balance that you might have to consciously collect specific items but not so much it’s a tedious bore. Coincidentally if you die you will only lose items classified as junk.

Performance and Bugs
My FPS continues to be all over the place, I have never been able to get a stable 60 FPS. I don’t crash every session I play but it happened enough that I prepare for it now - especially after playing solo one session I crashed shortly after dying, losing all my collected junk.

Servers will occasionally freeze up and NPCs will be stuck in place without attacking, even after their death they’re playing a gory version of musical statues.

Enemy AI often seems borked, easily tricked by stealth even when you don’t have any stealth perks equipped. Stairs will confuse them and if you’re able to jump up to a high spot you can take your sweet time chipping away high enemy health.

Community
The first few hours playing I met some of the friendliest people I have ever met in a video game. They were literally bending over backwards to be nice, giving out weapons and other useful items. They also loved showing off their houses and I’m always a sucker for wanting to see a person's creativity within games. Most people keep to themselves outside of small interactions but the in-game emotes are so warm and expressive you can almost have entire conversations only using them.

Servers are split into PVE or PVP with a maximum of 24 persons at any time. Custom/Private servers are locked behind the ‘Fallout 1st’ subscription. There are a few ‘trolls’ trying to PVP on PVE servers but they can’t really do anything unless they are actively engaged with - just make sure to store your junk before doing anything stupid.

Trade
Economy is busted. Given that this is supposed to be a post-apocalyptic game, you would have thought food, materials and tech resources would be immensely valuable but nope - worthless. Everything is so plentiful and constantly respawning. Server hopping is a valid strategy for the few items that you can’t find easily. The most valuable things appear to be plans from previous events and seasons and occasionally weapons/armour with very specific traits. People who own these typically want way more than what a newbie could afford and people who wanted them had already farmed them before they became rare. For everything else, keep looking til you find someone selling them for pennies.

Exploration
The map ends up feeling REALLY small because of the instantaneous nature of the fast travel. Previous open-world Bethesda titles have similar problems but a lot of quests in F76 have you revisiting locations and this exaggerates this feeling. It’s a bit of a double edge sword, being able to teleport to your friends is a must but you can accidentally skip a lot of content. Exploration without purpose feels underwhelming, the landmarks themselves are amazing but unless you have a quest or a specific reason for being there, you’re unlikely to be rewarded with useful items.

C.A.M.P and Monetization
Honestly, the player housing (C.A.M.P) is one of the best additions to Fallout 76. You can choose almost anywhere in the world to plant your roots and yes, it’s clunky and awkward to build but there is access to a lot of items to build a decent little hovel without additional purchases using real money. I love my little pancake house.

Atoms are the real money currency. They are used to buy (mostly) cosmetic items from the Atomic Shop. You can earn a decent amount just doing in-game challenges and progressing through the season pass. I've managed to earn about 5,000 so far. To purchase them directly would have cost me £31.99.

Fallout 1st monthly membership includes an additional 1650 Atoms every month at a cost of £11.99 (that’s more than World of Warcraft!!). Personally I think this is not even remotely worth it, you can earn more than enough cosmetic items through the free season pass. The biggest appeal to actually purchasing it, after speaking to others, comes from the infinite junk storage but it really shouldn’t be. It feels like the antithesis of hoarding habits many who play open-world games end up adopting and the cynic in me says they’re artificially creating problems and solving it with money.

Modding
I was gobsmacked to discover that some mods work with public servers. My experience is second hand from a friend as I never downloaded any but amongst the mods they had included: improved load times and performance; a text based chat system that worked cross-server; visual notifications for nearby items (such as bobbleheads/magazines/recipes/etc).

Achievements and Endgame
Completionists be aware there are two reputation grinds, one achievement that will require a second playthrough and then.… ‘Troglodiced’ (Kill 100 Trogs with an Auto Axe).
Trogs are an enemy only found in the end game raid-like instances called ‘expeditions’. The recipe for the auto-axe is sold by only one NPC for 1,000 stamps. Neither the auto-axe, nor the recipe, can be traded with other players. To earn stamps you have to play through expeditions but before you can start an expedition you have to do three specific dailies to ‘charge up a battery’. The first expedition I completed earned me 3 stamps… The most you can earn is 10 stamps per expedition (8 if you are not the group leader).

Endgame in general is rather lacklustre and grindy. Revolving around doing the same daily quests and daily/weekly challenges working towards completing the season pass. There are big bosses but defeating them rarely feels like an accomplishment. However, I’ve still put over 150 hours into this game (which is nothing compared to some), I do not regret it and will happily still be checking in from time to time.

Restock the shelves, serve customers, mop the floors, and pick up trash. All in a day's work at the Convenience Store and then you can go home and spend all your hard earned cash on 'Amazing' purchases and cat food. Meowjiro is an addictive time-management job-simulator game about working to provide for your pet cat… although, beware they are not what they seem.

Accuracy is required for monetary transactions, speed for others. If a task is failed or you take too long, pay will be docked. There is a steady increase in challenge but it never becomes overwhelming. In-game events announced through the news will cause certain tasks to be more prominent the following day. The second mode ‘Math Genius’ will have the player solve how much change is required instead of simply displaying the amount required.There’s no day cycle, the management aspect revolves around responding to tasks efficiently. Once the last task is completed and the last customer has left, the day ends.

The game plays comfortably and responsive using keyboard and mouse but there’s no key-rebind options. Picking up trash felt awkward (although I think this was intentional) and I found the ice cream machine a little deceptive and kept ‘dropping’ them. There is controller support but it felt too slidey trying to target menu buttons so I didn’t try it while playing the game.

The goal of the game is to feed your cats. Doing so will allow you to obtain more cats with in total to collect. I feel this side of the game wasn’t clearly explained in-game and what I’m about to say might be a spoiler for those wanting to go in blind. Feeding your cats will increase scores of meat/water/fish/chicken and reaching certain score combinations will cause a new food item to be available for purchase (this will also fully reset the scores). These items when consumed by a cat will spawn a new cat. You can check score requirements in the ‘Pedia’. I adore how the designs and how they aren’t just different colours! Many of them reminded me of those found in Kekeflipnote’s whimsical meme interpretations of ‘Strange Cats’.

You are given your own apartment which will slowly be expanded from a cupboard to something habitable as you gain more cats. You can sit here as long as you want between work days watching the cats do their thing, as well as reading the news, making purchases and catching up with emails on the in-game phone. There are a few items that can be purchased to furnish the living quarters. The items have set places where the options are usually choose between two to three styles or not at all. It feels very limited and I would like to see more items especially for the cats.

I had a good time playing this game, I genuinely couldn’t stop until I had all the cats! It was very satisfying to complete busy days with no mistakes. There’s lots of charm in the variance and in the little details of the cats, the customers, the purchases and the trash left behind. Watching the items customers pick up seem to match which shelves they visited. I was absolutely shocked when a dog came into the store and peed however, I thought he was going to be a gimmick and buy something but no, just peed. I completed the cat-pedia by day 27 (approximately 3 hours) and had all the achievements by day 40 (approximately 4.5 hours).