Recent reviews by Dova

The greatest zombie game I've ever played. It's got deep mechanics, scary zombies, choking isolation, and a lot of my playtime hours. Also an objectively better multiplayer experience if you have friends (unlikely).

Zomboid perfectly encapsulates the dread that comes with being in the middle of an apocalypse and kindly reminds us that if we took the place of our first player character that we would die unceremoniously, quickly and possibly violently. But that's good, you aren't supposed to survive. Project Zomboid follows the story of someone who died - you are GUARANTEED to die, it's just a matter of how and when.

Every life you live you will learn something new, think a different way, approach situations differently - eventually you'll amass such knowledge that the zombies become a mere distraction (for better or for worse, the game's still developing and as such the endgame content can be lacking, but it's totally worth the buy, trust me).

Some of my highlights include:
- Crashing my car at mach 1 into a tree and bleeding to death from a glass shard in my throat.
- My friend flipping our ambulance over in the middle of a busy road with the alarm blaring.
- Unknowingly being fed a bleach dinner ("Why am I queasy?").
- Kansei Dorifto.
- Getting trapped between a rock (reversing car) and a hard place (horde of zombies).
- Working for hours honing a highly skilled character only for them to get caught unaware hopping a fence and getting bitten.

Oh, and zombie bites are ALWAYS lethal.

Disappointing.

It hurts to say, but I can’t lie, the disappointment-borne whiplash almost killed me.
Since the original hypewave with the release (and success) of Pizza Tower I was incredibly excited for Antonblast – it looked and sounded incredible with the early-access demo builds being a blast. I was CERTAIN that I was going to love it.

Unfortunately, in my humble and objectively correct opinion, Antonblast peaks at its first stage and gets worse from there. The whole game ended up feeling like a chore to the point I felt like a weight was lifted from my chest the moment I finished the final boss. The long stages, dragged-out boss fights and questionable design decisions REALLY soured the experience. When I tell you that the “Bell boss” is quite possibly the worst boss fight in recent memory, surely that counts for something.

Areas I were certainly NOT disappointed with were the visual and audio design – Antonblast undoubtedly looks and sounds incredible. Each animation exudes such personality and it’s clear that so much passion was shoved in, I’m sure I only kept playing because the game’s charm kept tugging me along. Truly, the game’s charm almost made me recommend it singlehandedly but upon further consideration I couldn’t ignore the faults that held it back.

My main gripe comes with how Antonblast is seemingly all about speed and destruction whilst the level design can completely miss the memo – going fast means you can’t see what’s ahead and react in good time (thanks to the small screen size, insane screenshake (I get it’s ‘funny’ but it’s just so overwhelming at the best of times), abrupt and poorly-contrasted death-pits and sudden on-hit obstacles). To complete stages in good time and in a single life requires a LOT of foresight and muscle-memory which wouldn’t be a problem if not for your limited visibility; the screen’s too zoomed-in. When replaying stages quickly I felt as though I was reacting to obstacles based on memory instead of what I see which got me thinking about how it’d be to play the game blindfolded.

To compound the issue, you have a few ways to travel: Boosting, sliding and hammer-jumping, the latter requiring a brief setup period. When travelling quickly, you have mere frames to see what’s coming up and sometimes that’s not enough time to prepare a hammer-jump, or god-forbid a boosted hammer-jump. You won’t know what the jump demands until it’s too late and you can end up in a routine of: Go forward, take damage for using the wrong jump, die sometime after, remember (or forget) the first jump to prevent damage, then proceed. I’m not a fan of this trial and error, especially when it involves the ever-irritating hammer-jump mechanic. I’d fight with this ability throughout the game – it’s often initially unclear what does and doesn’t continue the jump, what you can/cannot bounce off, and so on. This will frequently result in successive unwanted hammer-jumps which can really screw things up based on the situation (lose time, miss jumps, take damage). This wouldn’t be as much of a problem if the hammer-jump was mapped to a different button to the clutch-boost (the slide button is borderline useless unless you’re at a complete stop). Anyway, traversal is important and present all through Antonblast and is handled questionably although I can admit some platforming sequences are pretty good if you follow them.

As foreshadowed prior, the boss fights are iffy. Some are okay, one is GREAT, and the rest are either forgettable, boring or meh (The ‘Dragon boss’ is PEAK). My issue with them is that most have long break-periods between phases or very slow attacks which can really drag the fight out. Regarding the ‘Bell boss’, it’s slow, uninteresting (I don’t get why it exists) and each additional phase takes a chunk out of my life expectancy. During the fight, my mouth was agape in shock at how appalling it was and I had to walk away from my PC when I finished it. It sounds cringe, but that was the state this game brought me to - "Antonblast made me cringe". I’m usually the completionist sort but you couldn’t PAY me to complete this game.

At the end of the day, I suggest you play the Boiler City demo stage if you can find it, you’ll get to experience the best of what Antonblast can offer and leave contented. Antonblast is not a ‘bad’ game, but it’s not a very memorable or great one either.

A shame, really.

A game that makes up for its short length with charming characters, settings and dialogue.

Not every character will react to every piece of dialogue and that's a bit of a shame, however with how tedious it can be to repeatedly pick up and deliver said dialogue it may be for the best.
It looks great, has pleasant music and I enjoy the Gods despite how little we see of them. Kind of ironic in a sense that a game called 'Great God Grove' doesn't really do much with said Gods outside of pasting short 'redemption' arcs and character quirks onto each of them - though it must be said that all of the Gods are unique and enjoyable.
I'd prefer if the Gods had a larger role than being puzzle piece generators and were instead more present throughout the story so the player could develop stronger attachments to them and develop a greater sense of urgency to complete the story.

That aside, I don't regret my purchase and found the overall package worthwhile and fun.

A neat little puzzle platformer with a good level of challenge. Big fan of the sounds, music and how they match the high-speed gameplay. I could see this game having quite a high skill-ceiling for achieving faster level times (I can already imagine how terribly hard custom modded levels could be).

The gameplay is what you're really after with this purchase, the story is inconsequential and mediocre which is fine since it just acts as a gameplay motivator. The 'Overheat' setting accommodates replay value and serves as a nice additional challenge for those who seek it.

Yeah I like it, however some of the hitboxes are a bit janky and may lead to some unexpected or inconsistent deaths.

Forewarning: There is no New Game+ or post-game content like in Prey. When you complete all your orders, the game is over - you cannot resume your simulation to explore further or work towards your own goals, it auto-saves before the end credits. This is the biggest gripe I have with the DLC, otherwise it's good.

Following the stellar release of Prey is its DLC, Mooncrash, which spins a Roguelike twist on the original formula.

This may be a turnoff for most, but rest assured that it's still pretty good. It's much smaller in scope than the original game with regards to story and map-size but makes up for it with increased combat depth and new gameplay implementations in the form of multiple survivors that you can play as (which each have their own skill-trees). I personally find this DLC to be a fresh experience as someone who has experienced all of the base game and I'm a fan of what it introduces, though it's sort of lacking in some ways.

Each play-through of the simulation will be different in some way or another and is a baseline standard for the roguelike experience, however I find that the degree of change is too minor to be engaging. Without going into too much detail, most runs play the same and the map doesn't change enough to warrant a change of strategy most of the time and, due to this DLC using Prey's immersive-sim-framework, most obstacles can just be avoided or countered with ease. This is both good and bad - I like the freedom of choice, but I don't like how your freedom isn't challenged between playthroughs to promote experimentation or variety; again, I find myself following the same routes and paths to go where I want to with minimal challenge (and I LIKE challenge but since the built-in timer gives me a sense of urgency I don't want to waste time not following the quickest path).

Don't get me wrong, the game-feel is great, combat hits hard, resourcing matters more than ever and critical thinking is a must. These elements make for a great and worthy DLC for Prey. Definite recommendation if you're itching to further experience the world of Prey and its quirks.

An incredible and sadly overlooked masterpiece of an immersive sim. Recommended even at full price.

Prey follows a linear narrative structure which enables you to exercise freedom in every situation you come across, from combat to exploration. For every problem you come across, there will be multiple solutions; not every solution will be readily obvious but as you immerse yourself with the mechanics for longer periods of time you'll start to approach problems differently. The simplest and most frequent application (which still has lots of depth) is combat - your arsenal, environment, position and enemy will dictate your approach to encounters and challenge your ability to think on the fly. The game even encourages creative application to problems as enemies can hit very hard and thus must be approached with caution. Combat throughout Prey is always engaging and constantly evolving - I couldn't ask for more.

Prey has sizeable replay value due to the upgrade-tree mechanic funnelling you into prioritising specific skill branches such as Hacking. While it's true that you could grind enough to afford every skill, that isn't fun or interesting - the interest of Prey comes from managing with what you have, especially since most problems have multiple solutions as mentioned prior. Just great, really.

The storytelling is immaculate and BEYOND immersive. Every small detail is accounted-for which all coalesce to form one of the greatest and thought-provoking narratives I've had the pleasure of experiencing in gaming. Don't spoil yourself please. Also the sound design is just amazing, all the weapons sound and FEEL so chunky and the music is so tense and reflective of the current mood/setting.

Be a Predator and get Prey.



wait no what

In short: SteamWorld Heist but better in every conceivable way with additional QoL changes, game mechanics and party flexibility. Plenty of hours of fun content, from unlocks to achievements. Worth the buy.

In long: An engaging 2D turn-based tactical shooter with a stellar soundtrack written by Steam Powered Giraffe (who also wrote songs in the first game). The mission-based gameplay loop is very fun and, as you will discover through your playtime, is highly customisable through the introduction of classes, perks and utility items - unlike the first game where each crewmate was limited in what weapons they could use, reducing their versatility. Furthermore, you're encouraged to train your crew in multiple jobs since you're able to merge perks from different classes together which allows you to finely tune your ideal party lineup and loadout.
The story is about what you'd expect from a SteamWorld game - it's enough, nothing stellar but it keeps your attention and helps tie together the two types of gameplay: mission stages and naval combat.
Naval combat, much like the rest of the combat, is quite customisable and interesting. As you explore the world you can purchase, loot or find various ship upgrades or weapons to help yourself buoyant while fighting various enemy ships. I very much like this type of gameplay (more than I initially thought I would if I'm honest) although I often found myself being very careless, throwing caution to the wind late-game as I rammed and face-tanked every hit using hull upgrades - perhaps this approach isn't viable on the highest difficulty but I wouldn't know. As an aside, do yourself a favour and find speed upgrades ASAP since your default speed is...slow... to say the least.
You'll find yourself spending the most time in those aforementioned missions with turn-based combat. To many, this sounds like a turn-off but in reality this gives you time to think carefully about each decision you make and to better take advantage of the aimline system. Most guns have sway and an aimline which, if timed correctly, can allow you to pull of the nastiest of trickshots possible or just miss entirely. As each shot may be crucial it could be very annoying to miss thanks to random aim sway but thanks to the versatile job system you can just assign a point into greater aim skills (just one of many upgrades that can make up for any issues you may run into regularly).
Stability-wise, it runs great for me and I only ever encountered 1 "bug" where a loading screen took 10x longer than usual, but besides that it was a smooth ride (also if you go to places that the game doesn't anticipate, you may find dialogue too early which kinda breaks immersion or just downright wouldn't make sense in context).

Honestly a great buy and a great addition to the SteamWorld franchise. You can think of it as what Steamworld Dig 2 is to the original but in the Heist series. Oh yeah and the game just looks gorgeous. I don't know how they did it but damn it looks, feels and sounds good.

Solid pick.

id rather lick the dry snot out of my congested nose on a hot summer day than try to play this dlc in its current state.
worse than the main game and other dlc in every way.
contains, historically, the worst final boss i've ever seen in a videogame
im disappointed.

worse than the prior games in almost every way.
buggy, lacking, aimless, flashy, uninteresting, open-world (kinda), underwhelming - all words than can be used to describe exodus.
do yourself a favour and play Metro 2033 and Last Light, not this, please
it's so nothing and lame.
i can't even find the strength to use proper capitals. it's that meh.

the dlc keeps softlocking my save and the nightvision blinds me

A perfect example of a sequel - the same as the original but with more content, story, and variety. If you liked Metro 2033, then you’ll like Last Light; it’s got the exact same gameplay with all weapons making a return. Repping the same visual style and graphical fidelity of the previous title, you’ll experience a continued narrative with Artyom as you explore the Metro.
New enemies are brought forth amongst a bolstered arsenal and a larger variety of locations. The weapon customisation is as simple and superficial as in the first game, but thankfully the new weapons receive upgrades too so you can count on them being worth their carry-weight.

An improvement over the original is the addition of extra levels alongside the main campaign that introduce you to new situations as alternative characters and provide some much welcome gameplay variety. There’s a nice handful of side-content to sink your teeth into and I’m all for it.

Can’t recommend Last Light enough if you’re a fan of the original Metro 2033, however if you’re new to the series then I’d suggest buying the original first - you’d be missing a lot of context and appreciation otherwise.