Recent reviews by Pang

Easily one of the most creative and interesting games I've ever played.

I don't want to give too much away, because this is one of those games where you should go in knowing as little as possible. But if you are into solving mysteries and puzzles then definitely give this a try. It is a rare type of game that lets you experience "epiphany". That sublime moment when you notice something or realize something that's been right under your nose the entire time, and suddenly all the pieces click into place and everything that you didn't understand before now makes sense, and an amazing feeling of awe washes over you.

If you're still not convinced then I'll give a little more description, but keep in mind that from here on I'm explaining game mechanics that I think you are better off discovering naturally by yourself.

The basic gameplay is a fairly straightforward isometric action game, taking a fair bit of inspiration from Dark Souls in its combat, level design, and other systems. The perspective and progression is also somewhat reminiscent of old Zelda games.

The unique feature and core conceit of the game is that it tells you almost nothing. Instead, as you play, you find pages of the game's instruction manual. What's more, 90% of the text in the game, including the manual, is written in an unknown fantasy script. You must use your intuition and the context clues and hints in the manual to determine where to go and what to do. The more you study the pages, the deeper your understanding of the game becomes.

It takes some time before the real genius of the game becomes apparent, so don't worry if it seems a bit dry at first.

Great mechanics, great presentation, great story. This game absolutely oozes style, originality and creativity. I finished it ages ago but still think about it all the time. If you're into games as a storytelling medium this one is masterful.

I recommend playing without doing much research into it. All you really need to know is that it's a card battle game, with some twists, and a really fun story. I don't think you even need to be a fan of card games to enjoy this.

This game is essentially a short but fun piece of interactive fiction. There is a variety of light gameplay representing different genres of games, each corresponding to one of the characters in the story. If you're coming from Inscryption, you should know the gameplay in The Hex is not the focus of the game and is largely just a way to convey the story, which is a pretty compelling mystery-style plot that unfolds in an interesting way as you play through the memories of each character.

I had a good time and I think it's worth a playthrough, especially if you enjoyed the story themes of any of Daniel Mullins' other games. I feel that the artstyle might deter some, but don't worry, it's not really a big deal.

An overall excellent Castlevania-style metroidvania. If you like Symphony of the Night, you'll like this game.

Movement is tight and feels good. An absolutely massive variety of weapons, spells and abilities lets you really customize how you want to play and keeps things fresh. The exploration, map design and basic progression of the game is simple but fairly well executed. There's also tons of stuff to find and collect for completionists, New Game+, extra difficulty levels, 2 additional playable characters, a ton of extra bonus modes, plus QoL features that you wish the old Castlevania games had. In short, this game owns.

The game's biggest weakness is its presentation. It lacks the detail and quality lighting to really sell the atmosphere. The story is kind of whatever, the voice acting and dialogue is mid-tier and the story isn't really interesting, mostly just an excuse to have the game. The music is pretty good but there's nothing outstanding.

There's a few other minor things I don't like. Touch damage from enemies can be frustrating, for some reason it just feels wrong in this game. The food crafting system and sidequests are tedious and don't really add anything to the game except more stuff to keep completionists busy. The spells are poorly balanced, there's a few which kind of trivialize most of the game (but I think the fun of the game is mostly about becoming overpowered anyway). I don't like that you have to beat the game to unlock the higher difficulties.

But none of that really damages the core fun of the game, it's still a great time.

One of the best puzzle games ever made and one of my personal favourite games of all time along with the sequel. The presentation and gradual unveiling of the story is masterclass and gets deep into its themes and ideas in a way that other games just don't. If you have any affinity for puzzle games at all this one is a must play.

One of the best games ever made. It is a true shame that more people will not experience this just because it is a puzzle game.

The first game is already one of my favourite games of all time and I think this one surpasses it, it is an evolution in almost every way. The puzzles are clever and fun, the environments are jaw-dropping, and the story and message of the game is beautiful and powerful.

Playing this game you get the impression that its making was deeply meaningful to its creators. This is not just a product or a flight of fancy, it is a vivid and radiant work of passion that its makers fervently desired to bring into existence. It was important to them, as human beings, that others experience what they had to say.

The only thing I didn't like about this game was that it had to end. A true masterpiece.

Not for me. The game has a decently fun combat and class system and a pretty impressive expansive open world to explore, but it is bogged down by tedious item management and a total lack of "hooks". The gameplay is fun enough but there is just nothing that makes you want to explore and play and so it all just feels kind of boring and bland.

The game basically has no story other than "you're the chosen one, go kill the evil dragon". The game is mostly about just giving you a big fantasy world to play around in and the quests are just there to be something to do instead of to be compelling. Most quests are stuff like "kill 30 wolves" or escorting an NPC halfway across the world. I never really found any interesting loot, most of the stuff you find is just money, materials, or healing items.

All that is fine for some, but for me I need a reason to care. It doesn't have to be story but I need something to look forward to, something that makes me want to see what's next. I never got that feeling from this game, it's just a fantasy RPG sandbox. Wolves, bandits, skeletons, zombies, forests, caves, and so on. You're not really going to find anything original or innovative in this game.

The item and inventory management is also really overbearing and tedious. The game has an absolute truckload of junk to pick up, but you and your party also have limited carrying capacity. Most of the stuff you find is also more or less useless on its own and needs to be crafted into other stuff. You have a party of 4 characters and each one's inventory needs to be managed separately. It feels like you spend half your time in this game just dealing with the inventory menu.

Absolute banger of a game, one of the best 2D platformers I've played.

Some of the things I like about it:
- Great blend of execution skill and "puzzles"
- Loads of secrets and extra challenges
- Very fast to restart when you fail and you respawn at the start of the screen so you never lose much progress
- Great difficulty curve, some of the later stages are absolutely brutal but it never gets TOO obnoxious
- Little to no randomness, everything comes down to your skill
- Each stage introduces new ideas which are explored to their full potential. Even late into the final challenge stages the game is still introducing new mechanics and skills to master.
- Music slaps
- Presentation is overall great

Highly recommend

I've heard of this series before but never played it before. I was really surprised at how good it was for a 1996 game. Graphics are really nice, quality full voice acting, and the puzzles never get too absurd or annoying. It was more "adult" than I was expecting too, there's some pretty bawdy jokes and a lot of fun characters and dialogue. Just a good time all round.

My personal favourite game of all time. An experience like no other. A masterpiece among masterpieces. I think of this game whenever I look at the stars.

Play it without looking up anything about it.