Recent reviews by Angelore

Surprisingly addictive and polished, but I dislike some aspects of it. Most likely it's a case of misplaced expectations. I will elaborate on that and you decide whether these are dealbreakers for you.
I will also mention that I have not played Slay the spire, this is my first entry in the genre.

Before I begin, it's pertinent to mention that the game is not hard. Not until you start going down the descent routes. In fact, I only started losing when I started going after achievements specifically.

1. Some enemies are designed in a way that makes them very frustrating (not hard) to fight against. Note: I gave some examples here at first, but then it turned into a rant about balance, and I don't think anybody is interested in reading it in a short review.
2. Mechanics in general are pretty restrictive. You are allowed up to 6 active spells, and only 4 slots are available from the start, the rest need to be unlocked every run. You only get 3 dice from the start, which is very little, and getting more is hard and usually comes with drawbacks. Then, if you do manage to get more dice, you run into the fact that spells have charges, so you can't even use your hard-earned dice, and so on.
3. In general, feels like the developers are afraid to let players become too powerful. You can reliably get a build that clears the game, but it rarely feels "strong". You just kinda get to the end.
4. Most of items are either: boring, weak, or come with drawbacks. Often some combination of three. It's also relatively hard to get any, you almost always have to buy them.

In summary, the game is not exactly a power fantasy about becoming a world shattering spellslinger mage, but more about just making it through the run in a quite restrictive box of rules. Which is not a bad thing, just not what I expected going in. I expected it to get strict when you start playing higher difficulties, not from the very start.

This review is for the version 0.9.5. Eagerly waiting for the full release!

I don't feel it. The game is not bad, but I suppose it's just not for me.
I also expected to play this in small bursts during the day, since it's so lightweight. But it has 3 unskippable loading screens, and then you need to click 7 (seven) times to get through menus and into the map, and then another 2 to start playing.

I can't recommend this game if you are looking for a coop experience, since progress only happens for the host (the guest will not even get drops from chests).
I can recommend it (on sale) if you are playing solo. As usual, with caveats:
- The performance is still somewhat bad. You get enough settings to tweak to make it work, but it's still an "early UE5" title.
- The difficulty goes from "very enjoyable" to "I'm not playing this game again" really abruptly sometimes. There are ways to cheese if you don't mind that, however.
- Game has a small playerbase by now, so if you are getting invaded, it's probably a playstation kid playing on his neighbors wi-fi, be aware that it will be a lagfest.
- Unfortunately the devs decided that npc quests should be as frustrating as possible, so looking them up on a wiki is mandatory.
- Accessorizing in this game is very shallow. One trinket slot and two rings, neither do all that much.

If you don't mind the above, then you will find that it's a good take on souls formula, with cool interconnected levels and... well that's it, really. It's not a groundbreaking title, but should serve as a solid foundation for their next game, if they learn their lessons this time.

Nice little game.
Don't expect an enormous sandbox, but it's fun for 10-20 hours. It does get a bit repetitive after that, and over-reliance on some mechanics to dial up the challenge hurts the fun aspect (looking at you, shields).

Important: Do not be like me. Hold [F] when travelling in a pod.

Absolutely atrocious and unacceptable performance, which should disqualify this game from ever receiving a thumbs up.

However, I have to admit that the game itself it just so much my cup of tea, that I'm willing to play with DLSS on balanced with drops to 45 FPS. I have a 3070, but I've heard that people with 4090s have issues sometimes, which is, of course, ridiculous.

With that out of the way -- the game is fantastic in its own regard. I immensely respect that they went ahead with the approach where you are not just likely to miss some content (if you are doing a single playthrough) -- it is a given that you will. You will miss all the secrets, sure, but even the worlds themselves have two main stories each which dictate which bosses you will find. There are also multiple permutations of which side areas you will see, which minibosses will be available and so on.

With regards to secrets, there are definitely some that miss the mark for several reasons, i.e. some of them only being doable in coop. But I respect the intent nonetheless.

Gameplay itself is very solid, and most options are perfectly viable, so you don't need to follow guides to make a build that works. Apocalypse difficulty is a slightly different beast, but that's how it is.

As for the story: dialogue is bad, the main story line is quite bad, lore is pretty good. So, a mixed bag. Unfortunately, the last cinematic sequence is top cringe, so the game "ends" with a sour aftertaste. "Ends" in quotes, because it does in fact just begins after you beat the final boss and start replaying it to see and get everything.

This is a "recommend" but also quite a "maybe". Get this if you liked GR1.
Otherwise, there are a couple of issues that can sour your experience. There were a couple of bugs that I encountered, one of which led to the game crashing my machine and wiping the save file. Some scripting errors as well (e.g. a boss doesn't transition into the next state correctly and just stands there invulnerable).

The music is solid, the platforming is still good, although once again there are some rough edges here and there. Enemy variety is good, but by the end they start reskinning enemies. It's technically story related but meh. Graphics are good, some small stutters and texture loading issues just like in the first game, but nothing gamebreaking.

Overall I still liked it a lot, but I wish it was just a tad more polished. And grounded, but this is just a personal preference, I like my sci-fi a little more sci than fi.

This game really makes it a point to waste your time. In every instance of choosing between "make it fun" or "make it tedious" they chose tedium. Because of this, I can not recommend the game. It just doesn't respect your time at all. I think it's a perfect illustration of an artistic idea being put on a pedestal to the detriment of everything else. So, as an art project, it probably works. As a game? Absolutely not.
A shame, I really wanted to like this one.

The music and visuals are charming and beautiful though.
Also, they did add "explore" mode, but I played it the "intended" way (survival), and have zero desire to go back and check if explore is worth it. Besides, unless they also multiply the character's speed by at least two times, it is still going to be way too slow.

A nice small little game about fishing. Doesn't overstay its welcome and doesn't try to sell you a battlepass.
The story is not very deep (haha) but the twist reveal is very well crafted.

Some things can definitely be improved, but I'm satisfied with my time with it.
Just don't expect a big expansive adventure and you won't be disappointed.

Lovely souls-like that improves the formula in several areas. While not perfect, definitely worth your time.
There are some small issues with difficulty for me, in some places it spikes like crazy, but the experience will differ for everyone as usual.
Very good performance: on Rtx 3070, 1440p, everything on max, DLSS off, and capped to 100 FPS -- very stable throughout, with one or two dips to 85 fps.

And finally, he is literally me.

Very fun in co-op. Haven't really tried it solo so far.
Wish it had more music and/or longer tracks. While current score is good, it gets repetitive after a while.