Recent reviews by Alfrebecht

I hesitate to praise it as a successor to BG 1 and 2, that feels a bit like comparing Fallout 3 to its predecessors. But like Fallout, the re-imagining of the series is a knockout success. Baldur's Gate continues to be plagued by a variety of minor bugs, but the scale makes that at least mildly forgivable.
Most importantly this game has something to offer to both seasoned and novice RPG players. Its fast-paced simple story and the ease of the 5e mechanics means a newer or inexpert player will still have a blast, and the higher difficulties and complex build synergies mean a veteran can have fun as well (and unlike many other RPGs, despite constant updates, BG3 retains a number of fun and silly ways of cheesing the game as well).

If long war is X-com for the diehards, this is X-com for those who just want a quick dirty hit of the game style.

It's simpler and more stylistic than its cousins, which won't hit right for everyone. Add to this the much smaller amount of replayability and variety to gameplay and it's worth picking up on sale. At the time of writing it's three bucks, easily worth the sticker for the cost of a bag of chips.

Title currently can't launch even with moderate user-side tinkering.
Likely excessive poorly configured DRM on ancient games has rendered the title unplayable. Stay away unless fixed.

A pity since this game was a masterpiece. If the company ever gets its ethical act together and lets people access what they've paid for I'll update the review.

If you liked the math and decision making of sts and were an a20 player because of how much you liked spreadsheets, this is the game for you.
If you're like me and liked how predictive sts auto-tracking was and handled combat for you, this game will be enjoyable for a few hours of play. You'll get your money's worth, it's fun and aesthetically pleasing, but it's not the homerun of some other entries.

tl;dr as a casual a20 player of sts I found the ui and complexity of this title to be turned up to the point of mild turnoff, but still enjoyed the first few hours.

Farmin', Fishin', Friendin'.

A largely unsubtle reskin of the modern X-com games that manages to be simultaneously clunky and a mobile-game level of simple.
AI got stuck on its turn on its first turn on my first real mission soft-freezing the game; at that point I was just grateful to still be in the two hour window for returning it.

Niche appeal done perfectly.
In a nutshell:
A storytelling game visually sandwiched somewhere between a visual novel and a telltale game which is done in the style of a musical episode of a television show (with that same "just the right amount of justification") which involves Greek gods hidden among mortals in the modern day.

So if you liked:
Wolf Among Us
Buffy's "Once More With Feeling"
The Music Meister episode of the Flash
The Percy Jackson novels
Good Omens
American Gods

then this is for you.

Caveat Emptor!

tldr: Don't grab this unless you're ok with an unfinished game.

I hope to change this review as what there is of this game so far I have enjoyed. I generally avoid Early Access games, I like to enjoy finished products and don't get as much enjoyment as some out of seeing works in progress. Coral Island's development and the generally positive attention it has been getting left me optimistic so I purchased when it exited early access, but the 1.0 release feels like an attempt to get enough money to finish a kickstarter that ran out of cash (or worse, cash in on what's been finished and never touch it again. Fingers crossed that isn't the case).

This game should not have received a "full release." While there is a lot of game to enjoy, much of it is still incomplete, including main aspects of the story framework the farming simulator hangs itself on. Much of that content is well beyond the two hours of play Steam allows refunds at though, so don't pick it up unless you're ok with that ahead of time.

It looks excellent and feels fun initially, but the basic mechanics are overly simple while the progression is almost entirely small percent bumps. A game like this needs to look to games like Risk of Rain or Hades on how to make individual runs feel distinct rather than the same slog.
I have been an Amplitude fan for a long time, but after this and Humankind I'm beginning to drift away. Endless Dungeon may become something worth playing, the skeleton of a good game is there, but right now it just feels like bare bones dressed really well.

A distant cousin to first-person resource titles like Subnautica and Satisfactory, Shipbreaker achieves something so many modern titles fall short on - good pacing.
The player's introduction to the various tools and difficulty spikes feels organic, meshes well with the story, but at the same time doesn't drag or feel tiring. Shipbreaker won't be for everyone, but if you enjoy games that revolve around construction-related problem solving, this is a must have.