Seneste anmeldelser af Jadarma

Rust may seem just another average, run-of-the mill multiplayer survival early access title you see pop up on Steam every now and then, and for the most part, you'd be right. However, seeing the vast community that Rust has managed to put together, and seeing it on sale, I decided to give it a go, and boy, do I have a tale to tell! This game is both good, great, and horrible at the same time. Keep reading to understand why.
Worth Noting: I won't talk about really specific things as they are always subject to change. This will be a review of the overall experience you will get out of the game.

• Great Maps - Each server has it's own procedural map (which you can see here[playrust.io]) and it is pretty huge. Plenty of nice landscapes, biomes and landmarks to explore. With different spreading of resources and rare goods spots.
  
  
• Powerful Crafting - Crafting is intuitive, takes time to do, and offers many items to choose from, and even more to risk your life gathering ingredients for. Brings the balance between a sandbox builder and shooter. Building your base is also a pleasant experience once you've gathered the resources.
  
  
• The Social Aspect - If you don't have friends that play rust, you're pretty much doomed if you can't join a clan or small group. Rust is ruthless, with players jumping at each-others' necks for survival. You will be hunted, harassed, and you are expected to do the same, lest you risk being killed yourself. Teamwork and lack of trust in strangers are emphasized and crucially important here.
  
  
• Intense fights! - When people get greedy, they tend to rely on others to do the hard work for them. Enter raiding bases, and defending your own. If you happen to be online when you are attacked, raids are blood-pumping, scary, but also tons of fun, no matter on which side of the wall you are. Guns, crossbows and explosives everywhere!
  
  
• Strategy Based - Rust rewards brain over brawn. If you can make a good base design, place your home somewhere strategic, kill enemies from cover, or even deceive them, trap them etc. brings a whole world of rewards and will keep you alive for longer than flailing your assault rifle.
  
  
• Bi-weekly Updates - Even though this game has been in Alpha for 2 years now, updates are rolling in about two times a week, and it's nice to see a steady development flow. Still, it may be unfinished for a long time, but definitely playable nonetheless.
  
  
• Modded Servers - Want to freebuild? Want to get all resources and just focus on killing? There are a lot of community hosted servers with mods just for that!

• Ruthless! - Every one will try to kill you on sight, no questions asked. Everyone will try to raid your base, even though you just started. You will end up entering the game only to find everything you had stolen and your based turned to ruins. I myself with a group of 3 other friends just lost 50 hours of playtime each to an overnight raid, which brings me to my next point:
  
  
• Raiding is too easy! - Once you get your hands on a few C4 and / or rockets, raiding becomes too easy to perform and too hard to defend against. In order to have a well defended base, you will need to sacrifice actual inside room, if you want to actually be able to build it. Offline raiding (attacking once the players are offline) is also sadly available. You may have lookout towers and a lot of guns. But with no one to operate them, you will lose 100%.
  
  
• Building Sucks! - I said it's fun, and it is, but in order to combat abuse, you are only allowed to remove structures you placed 10 minutes after you place them. If you notice a mistake, or if you want to expand the building and say, replace a wall with a door, then tough luck, buddy! You'll have to raid your own base. So, start small, think in advance, stack resources and only build once you know what you want!

I recommend this game. It's fun, and it's frustrating, but it's fun because it is frustrating. Don't be afraid to lose, and try to have fun! This game is great with friends, and it has a very large community built around it!

Empire TV Tycoon is the self-evident title of a TV Channel simulator. You are in charge of managing almost every aspect of your broadcast. You can set the program, choose which ads will play, write your own scripts, hire actors, create your own shows, accept different contracts and manage the finances! Overall this is a very detailed simulator, worth taking a look at if micromanagement simulators are your thing.

• In Depth - As I've enumerated above, there are lots of aspects that you can manage about your channel, and it really feels like you are in control, and you are basically the only true employee.
  
  
• Great UI - Every production has its own "thumbnail" and music that plays on the mini-tv in the lower left corner that shows a live preview of what your (and your competitors') channel is broadcasting. Alongside is a couch on which can sit up to three demographics that are watching TV at the time. Analyze your audience and plan your schedule accordingly. Speaking of which, is a very nicely laid out spreadsheet with sortable blocks of content!
  
  
• Tons of References - There are a lot of movie titles, actors' names and characters that make cameos in this game, (eg. Walter White as a movie librarian and Doc. Brown as the upgrades guy). Try to figure out what is referencing what. Also, we have the overly stereotypical audience members, like fat, bald males, rockers that take their guitar to watch tv, and more.
  
  
• Produce your own Shows! - I like the many details put into the making of your own productions. You get to choose two actors to play, decide the type of product (tv show, movie) as well as the length, and then distribute points that accurately influence the rating of your thing. For example, have low nudity and great realism in a documentary, or great costume design and post-production in a sci-fi movie. You can even submit your creations to the in game equivalent of the Golden Globe!
  
  
• Custom Modes - You can choose how hard the game will be, how large your budget is, how many audience types is, whether or not you want the game to have an end, and so you can play however you want, at your own pace.

• No Automation - You can only plan your schedule one day in advance, and have to do it each day. This is a bit time consuming, and I would rather have it so that I can choose what blocks contain, and have the game randomize it. For example, between 19:00 - 00:00 pick high rated movies, at 18:00 play the next episode in the season of a TV show, etc. I would want to be in charge of the catalog of shows my channel offers, not being the timekeeper.
  
  
• Moving Around - Your company has three floors in which you conduct your activity. One one, you can admin your schedule, on one you manage employees, and on another you manage your personal productions. The only downside is that you have to move (using only one elevator that is shared with the two other competing channels, who for some reason operate in the same building) to a location in the building in order to do things. This usually takes time and I would prefer being presented with tabs somewhere on the screen to bring up the menus.
  
  
• A bit repetitive - After you get a hang of the ropes, you will find the game begins to be a little monotonous.

This is a game that is great only if you already are into the genre. It feels solid, has character, sufficiently in-depth to feel realistic, and overall is an entertaining experience. Simulate away!

A Bird Story is a short interactive visual storyteller brought to you by the same creators that developed the well known To The Moon (Which I reviewed here). This is a much shorter title, that tells a less emotional story about a elementary student, his paper airplanes and a pet pigeon.

• Beautifully Pixelated - The pixel art is amazing and everything looks incredible (from an artistic point of view, obviously). The world is interestingly build, and the level design is amazing. It also features a bit of "Antichamber"-like environment changes, where the map's layout changes to better suit the storytelling.
  
  
• Great Ambient - The background music is superb. A beautiful series of piano compositions that wonderfully suit the mood of the story. If you like listening to music while studying or doing light work, consider getting the OST for this song as well.
  
  
• Touching Story - The story is very emotional, sad, happy, worrying, it will take you through an emotional roller-coaster (though NOT comparable with To the Moon. So if you came here for an even sadder story, then don't be too exited). However, I will give it bonus points for making the entire story dialogue free, and still sending such a powerful message. It is shown as if remembered years later (background characters are shadowed, and only relevant places are explorable) and has just the right pace to let you sink in what you see. I won't say anything further, because I want you to enjoy the unknown as much as I did.

• Short - This is just an hour long game, and even though I list this as a con, it's more like of an observation. This was never meant to be a game. This is, as the description perfectly puts it, "a light interactive animation". You come here for a story. And if a story is amazing, it doesn't matter how long it takes to listen to it.

• Achievement - In order to 100% this game all you need to do is play it to the end. Great story and a perfect game to add to your collection to boot!

I recommend this game to anyone who likes light stories, has an hour of free time and is ready to watch and interact with a beautiful story. As far as I am concerned, given the game's scope, I can't find anything wrong with this game.

Defy Gravity Extended is a small game, with only a few tricks, but does it very well. It lacks the flair of a quality game, but once you go in and try it, it certainly redeems itself. In this game, you play as a spacesuit wearing gravitymancer trying to pass the gauntlet. You are equipped with a gravity gun (not the HL type!) and have to traverse many levels to prove your worth!

• Simple Concept - If you can make a simple game fun, you have succeeded as a developer. The game mechanics are very simple. You move about, and create two types of "portals". One that has a strong gravitational pull and one that repels objects. You can also activate a shield around you that negates any gravity effects. Leaving breaking the laws of physics aside, you must combine these simple actions in order to get yourself to the exit.
  
  
• Good Level Design - I'm not talking about the aesthetics, of course! I'm referring to the level layout, the challenges you face, their diversity, their difficulty. It impressed me how challenging this game became in later levels, without repeating itself throughout. The levels are many times relying on sinusoidal patterns and geometric arrays of projectiles!
  
  
• Challenging - The levels begin increasingly harder, and some are outright stressful. If you are looking for something to test your skill and patience with, you've come to the right place!
  
  
• Good Music - The background music is a nice relaxing tune that suits the space environment we are supposed to be in. Really helps ease out the stress from those hard levels.
  
  
• Cheap - The game is 0.99€ at normal price and can go all the way down to 0.09€ when on sale. So, just give it a try, it will cost you basically nothing. (Not to mention it has Steam Trading Cards)
  
  
• Achivements! - Few achievements, only requirement is passing the game. Sounds easy, huh? It's not, but good luck, hunters!

• Ugly Visuals - The textures aren't eye candy and everything is flat and pixelated. While I'm not saying a game is good if it looks good, it wouldn't hurt getting a little face lift every now and then.
  
  
• Shabby Animations - The animations are barely existent, sometimes movement may seem plastic, especially the way your character tilts its body when looking at the cursor.

Defy Gravity Extended is certainly not a game for everyone, so if you don't like skill-based platformers with minimal controls, then look elsewhere. If however, you like that sort of thing and still have the pocket change from grocery shopping, then consider giving it a go!

12 Labours of Hercules is a Greek mythology based 2D game where you control Hercules, his workers and other mythical friends, collect resources, and clear the path to the next level as fast as possible. This is a casual clicking game.

• Cute, Simple Fun - The game's concept is simple, but enjoyable. Clicking the screen and queuing up your actions would be boring, but it's fast paced, and while time doesn't press you, you will want to be as fast as possible. The levels themselves are repetitive to a degree, but if played in short bursts, it is actually a fun time killer.
  
  
• Decent # of gameplay elements - You have to divide your attention between getting resources, clearing paths, upgrading your buildings, and meeting special requirements to clear obstacles. Different levels contain a different mix of such elements.
  
  
• Game Length - Each level will take you between 6 and 10 minutes to complete, and there are 40 levels in total. All in all it took me 5 and a bit hours to casually stroll through the game while also getting all the achievements.
  
  
• Achievement Hunter Material - 22 very easy achievements that (most of them) come naturally during gameplay.

• Very Easy - While playing on normal, you have to be brain dead to not finish the game in gold time. Expert mode is a bit harder, but still lacks the "ultimate challenge" flare. If you are looking for a casual game, you've come to the right place.
  
  
• Misleading Title - The game should be called "1 to 4 Laborers of Hercules", since all he does is swing in his hammock and only every so often gets out to kick a boulder or win the level. Slacker...

Get this game while on sale. It often runs for as low as 0.14€, that's a steal, and it even has Steam Trading Cards. That's a tough deal to match.

Hook is a very short, mechanical puzzle game. Expect about an hour of thinking in this lovely little project with a minimalist approach.

• Great Design - If you've played this king of games, you won't feel anything new. It follows the philosophy of less is more, and for a game that was built around a prototype, it's a great choice. You'll find a simple color scheme, almost no UI, and a generic backing music.
  
  
• Interesting Gameplay - You have to remap circuit like structures by rotating nodes to guide the signal of your buttons. The goal is to retract the variously shaped bars without them colliding. Think of it as the electrician's lockpicking game.
  
  
• Self Cleaning Levels - I love it how when you clear part of a level, the now useless wiring and nodes disappear on their own. It makes following wires easier and lets you concentrate on the remaining part of the puzzle.
  
  
• Dirt Cheap - Honestly, you can't ask for more money on a game that is so short, but damn it, for the one hour of pleasant wiring I've done, I'm glad I bough this dev a coffee.
  
  
• Achievements - Achievement hunters, rejoice! A single achievement is required, and that is completing the game!

• Short - The game mechanics are awesome, I loved the idea, and I am sad there are only 50 levels of content, which will take you roughly an hour to complete. Custom levels would have been amazing to see here, but sadly, it is not the case.
  
  
• No Menus - The game is short enough that you will probably just pass through it in one sitting then you will leave it dusting on the hypothetical shelf until you are bored, so I understand why he didn't bother to include menus, but I still have to deduct points for no options whatsoever. Especially that you have to go through levels one by one. That is to say, if you enjoyed level 35, prepare to increment your way to it!

The game is fun, interesting, and literally costs a cup of coffee. You have nothing to lose, grab it!

Dear Esther is not a game, it is a walking simulator, and it is an experience. You walk on a deserted island, while your mind narrates some letters you wrote to Esther (hence the name). It focuses on the environment, the music, and the very detailed world to amaze and relax you.

• Beautiful - The game is beautiful. The world is very detailed, put together with much care and thought. Every scenery is breath-taking. Lots of dense foliage, rocky cliffs, and watery caves. Wonderful lightning as well! This is a walking simulator, of course. It is meant for you to behold, to explore, to enjoy.
  
  
• Great Narrative - The narration is very well performed, and the contents are nice as well. Pay close attention and you will get a grasp of what happened in the past. I won't give details about them here. Experience them yourselves.
  
  
• Relaxing - Besides buying a game, you also get free relax pills. This is excellent for when you are stressed out. Just enter the game, pick a chapter, and slowly walk, breathe in deeply, enjoy the beauty. Works like a charm!

• Linear - The game doesn't allow you to stray too far off your obviously paved paths. There are some occasions where you will encounter dead ends, but fear not. Just turn around, look for 5 seconds and the true path will surely be revealed to you.
  
  
• One Hour - That is the approximate time you will spend walking around. This is the standard length of this type of games, and I am not disappointed with it's length. But the world is so well made, I just want to see more of it!

For a 2012 game, this was a fresh breath of air. Good looking, interesting, and highly relaxing. If you like this type of games, get it, you won't regret it.

EARLY ACCES - Note this review may change over time as features are added or improved. Please read the end notes.

Professor Why: The Quantum Eye is a child friendly game in which you play as a lab assistant trying to prove himself to a GLaDOS inspired AI named the Eye. You have to successfully perform basic physics experiments that demonstrate basic concepts such as air dilatation to more uncommon ones, such as superconductors. While doing so, you also help the Professor 3D print his hand, so you can exit the bio-metric door to your freedom.

• Interesting to Learn - As this is mainly a tool for teaching, it does a good job. The experiments are different enough to not bore you, and the discovery process is natural. You also get hints from time to time if you are stuck or get positive feedback once you've done correct steps.
  
  
• Great Humor - I've mentioned the similarity between the Eye and Portal's GLaDOS, but it works well here. You play while being watched by the Eye and prof. Why, playing bad cop, good cop. While the professor will give positive reinforcement and advice, the Eye will openly mock you, doubt you and condescendingly comment on your progress, patiently awaiting your failure. The dialogues are short, but fun to listen to.
  
  
• Decent Visual Style - I like the very sterile-room style laboratory you work in. Even common objects are future versions of those items, shiny and chrome! Containers have volume indicators on the side, too!

• Shaggy Camera - The camera is a bit unintuitive and unresponsive, and many people complained about that. The devs are aware of that and are working on it.
  
  
• No Custom Levels (so far) - As of this far, ten levels have been made, with 10 more to come. However, 20 levels are a bit low, and unless you are a teacher and have a practical use for this, you will complete the whole game in no more than an hour or so. I've proposed the idea of custom levels to the devs, and possibly even Workshop integration. We will have to see what the future holds.

This game has potential in my opinion and I am very curious on how it will finish as. Personally, I would not approach this game without a level editor.

Grey Cubes is, in a nutshell, 3D Breakout with nice visual effects. That's what it wants to be, and it does it pretty good. It's one of the best versions of breakout I've played, and worth taking a look at.

• Visually Appealing - The game is 3D, the bricks are cuboid shapes, and the best part is... physics! The whole game has a blueish theme with very reactive environments. Let's be honest, the game of breakout is pretty darn simple. While you play it, at least look at something pretty too. This game does that perfectly.
  
  
• World Interaction - To make things more interesting, the game has added gameplay mechanics, such as buttons that once pressed change something in the level, or bouncy surfaces that boost your projectile's speed and even vortexes that teleport your ball around.
  
  
• Lengthy Levels - Some levels have difficult obstacles or are constantly spewing out new bricks to keep you busy. Some levels can take up to 5 minutes to beat, and there are 60 levels in total available.
  
  
• Magnet Mode - After some progress in the level has been achieved, an optional manually activated power-up is available to you, meaning magnet mode, which guides the ball to the nearest cubes. This is insanely useful when you are left with a few difficult to hit cubes left in the level, or not wasting other active power-ups on empty space by going in head first! If you view this as cheating, well, don't use it!

• Some Levels Repeat Themselves - If you think at some point you are experiencing deja-vu, you're not. You have seen that before. It's the exact level from 10 stages ago, but bigger and harder. Doesn't happen too often, but I would have rather seen 60 unique levels than having 40-ish unique and 20 iterative ones.

This game is a great time killer. A nice, new breath of air for the breakout genre, and well worth your time if you like this sort of game. And for the 0.99 Euro price tag, what more could you ask for? (Also, Achievement Hunters! 13 easy achievements on this one!)

Kyn is a top down strategy view type real time adventure role-playing game. You play as two special warriors who just managed to escape alive from some sort of gauntlet and return to their village to find a normally peaceful tribe of orc-like creatures suddenly turned red and became aggressive.

• Strategic Gameplay - Kyn uses the Baldur's Gate concept of controlling all or individual characters, and being able to pause time to give orders. However, here you can only slow time for a limited time, so you must be quick. Also, you will find yourself in situations where a good strategy is the only way to win.
  
  
• Puzzles! - Kyn has a good number of challenging puzzles. These mainly involve splitting your party, pressing puttons, and trying to reach a checkpoint. It really makes you think and it's a nice break from the usual fighting.
  
  
• Maps - This game is not open world, but rather splits the story into chapters, and you get to visit a decently sized map each chapter. It's great as you get to explore new areas each time and makes you want to do so, as there are goodies hiding in the corners, and you can't return to a map once finished.
  
  
• Humor - The story is decent, and the developers sneaked in a few good jokes too, sometimes breaking the fourth wall too.
  
  
• Focus on Gameplay, not character - The skill system is lacking on purpose because it makes it very easy to build your characters right away or switch between game styles. The game wants you to fight and be a good strategist, not a overly careful build planner.
  
  
• Excellent Level Design - The maps are unique, very detailed, and the level design was very well executed. The props have good hit boxes, you won't get trapped in clutter, villages seem practical, all in all a great environment. Graphically pleasing too.

• Generic Characters - The characters don't really impress me. Most of them are simple, linear beings with only a few character traits. You won't get attached to them.
  
  
• OK story, decent storytelling, but missing that spark. - I can't say the story elements are bad, but nothing was that special to really get me into it. A lot of the time, the dialogues failed to capture my attention, even if other times they did. Ultimately it's up to you if you want to go through the story or just skip it entirely, the game will be fun nonetheless.
  
  
• Seemingly Complicated Crafting System. - Between missions, you return to your town to craft stuff for your party. You are presented with many crafting components, but as you progress you will find there is no need to worry, as you will gather plenty of them, making scavenging simply a byproduct of gameplay.
  
  
• Idiotic take on death? - Without giving spoilers, the story has a few deaths and the characters seem pretty devastated by them - yet the first skill you're available to use from THE START OF THE GAME is revival. You even have some quests involving reviving some NPC who died attacked by creatures or whatnot. You can even revive dead guards. But a main character dies, and suddenly your party is sad. Why? Just revive the damn corpse!

• This is a two person indie game - Serious props to the two friends who had a vision together. The end product is very impressive for a team that small. Good job, guys!

Kyn is not perfect. It has good points, it certainly has bad points, but it's a nice RPG that holds about 25-30 hours of gameplay and it's a goog combination between thinking and pure action.