Recent reviews by Bitflipping

Chained Echoes did not make a great first impression on me. The game's opening hours throw a lot of characters and locations at you as it sets up the backdrop of a continent-wide conflict. Once you weather that initial deluge, however, the game really settles into a well paced epic adventure that deserves accolades similar to those heaped on many other RPG classics.

The fantastic pacing of the game is due to two smart design decisions about how battles are handled. There is a system called Overdrive that forces you to switch up the skills you use in each battle in order to keep a meter in the 'green' zone for optimal damage output as well as minimizing damage your party takes from enemies. Because all skills need to be on the table, your party's HP and TP are refreshed after every battle. This encourages experimentation and going all out on each battle instead of mindlessly clicking through basic attacks as you walk across fields of gameplay.

The other neat choice that was made with this game is that there is no traditional level system. Instead, completing certain sections of the games or defeating powerful foes (mandatory or optional) yield you with a point with which you can unlock a new skill (active, passive, or stat bonus) for each character in your party. You'll also some get normal stat bonuses as you keep unlocking skills. This setup means that grinding random enemies is not necessary at all and keeps you moving forward to the next plot point and next area to explore.

There are two tips that I feel are necessary to enjoy the game, at least early on. FIrst, buffs and debuffs play a bigger role here than many other RPGs. Giving your enemies poison or bleed can help decide battles especially early on, so they should be prioritized in the early game. The other tip is that because there is no 'traditional' level up system, you have to stay on top of upgrading your gear with materials and constantly looking for improvements. Doing so ensures that your party continues to be up to the challenge as the game progresses.

There's plenty more to dive into - the class items that grant even more skill flexibility, the sky armor system which is a whole separate set of combat mechanics itself, and the suprisingly dark plot. I ended up doing every bit of optional content there was in my playthrough and enjoyed every second of it. It's hard to believe I was once on the fence about buying this game in the first place.

I was torn on what type of review to leave this game but I think if given the chance to go back and not play it, that's what I would opt to do. Therefore, this will be a "Not Recommended" review.

The game starts off fairly simple in terms of combat and puzzle solving and never really progresses too much beyond that, only adding a few simple variations to your existing abilities. But what really makes this a "Not Recommended" title for me is the pacing and overall narrative. It takes forever to really get going, and only in the final act does the narrative make some degree of sense. Before that, you'll suffer through lots of aimless conversations and tangents that I wish I could have just skipped through.

Two positives standout to me - the boss battles are fun and fair to fight, and the art style/visuals is aesthetically pleasing as the soft palette and touch really makes the game a joy to look at. I just wish the rest of the package was as enjoyable.

Having just obtained all achievements in this game today after nearly 400 hours of playtime, I figured it was time to finally write a review. This is my favorite roguelike of all time, as it is an infinitely replayable turn-based deckbuilder that requires the perfect combination of knowledge, luck, and experience to truly master.

The game starts by giving you one character (the Ironclad) that is fairly basic in its mechanics. As you play that character, you'll unlock another one; playing with that new character unlocks the next one, and so on. Your first objective is to beat the game as the first three characters, as doing so unlocks the finale which will be added to future runs and has you taking on the true final boss. On the way, you'll fight basic enemies and harder "elite" foes, build your deck one card at a time, obtain relics that add transformations and effects to how your turns usually go, and have to conquer a boss at the end of each of the three regular "acts".

Even after you master this normal setup, the game introduces an optional concept called Ascension Levels. There are 20 of these, each one unlocked after completing the former. An Ascension Level adds a handicap to your game experience to increase the difficulty - this can be starting with an unplayable Curse card, dialing up the damage enemies deal to you, taking away a potion slot, and so on. These handicaps stack, so by the time you get to the upper teens of Ascension Levels, you are fighting an uphill battle on every run.

All of this combined to keep bringing me back for more, time and time again. This is the perfect game to play when you've got just 15 minutes before you need to do something, as you can save and quit after every encounter and come back anytime. A large amount of my playtime in this game came in the year after I had a kid, as this was the perfect game to dip into whenever I had a moment, such as during naps. But even those with much more free time will find the siren song of "one more run" too hard to ignore with this game.

Psychonauts 2 is a love letter to the era of 3D platformers. It combines easy to learn and master platforming mechanics with great art direction and the trademark Double Fine comedic writing to create one of my favorite games this year.

Incredibly creative game that is a mix between tabletop card games, escape rooms, and breaking the 4th wall. Do yourself a favor and avoid reading too much about the game for fear of spoiling it - just go ahead and buy it for a fantastic 12-15 hour experience.

Capcom has delivered another excellent remake of a classic Resident Evil game. Whereas the remake of the first game stayed true to its original genre of survival horror (complete with fixed camera angles and pre-rendered backgrounds), Resident Evil 2 switches to an over-the-shoulder, third-person perspective, similar to that of the more recent Resident Evil games like RE4-6 and the Revelations series. This doesn't make it any less tense, however, as ammo shortages, item management, and a variety of creatures out to kill you are still there.

The game also has a ton of unlockable stuff to chase after on subsequent playthroughs that will extend your time with it. Everything from new modes to weapons with infinite ammo are worth pursuing.

This game is the closest thing to the original Donkey Kong Country games that I've played, and that includes the new Donkey Kong Country series on Wii, Wii U, and Switch. The characters' moveset is established at the start and stays consistent throughout the game, with only slight modifications to how they control and how the game functions through the use of tonics, which must be unlocked and then equipped. The real draw, however, is the fact that each level gets a "vanilla" form as well as a modified form through the use of environmental factors in the overworld. Unplugging a river or turning on a wind turbine somewhere in the overworld will transform a once normal level into an aquatic or windy adventure. It's a neat trick that encourages you to keep exploring for shortcuts and hidden secrets that will breathe new life into old areas.

I've played a long list of Metroidvanias and this one towers above them all. Hollow Knight excels at everything it sets out to do, whether it be engaging combat, rewarding exploration, interesting lore, or creative bosses. Several times throughout the game, I thought to myself, "Well, this is probably the last area in the game" only to constantly be proven wrong.

That's not to say there aren't some areas of improvement. The mapping system is disorienting at first, as the player has to buy a map for each area and then buy a quill from the shop to update the maps. Furthermore, if the player wants to see their character's location on the map, they need to keep a certain charm equipped. While the lack of a map can help push the player to discover new areas, for many it will be the reason they struggle to latch onto the game at first. If you're feeling that way after the first hour or two, know that you are not alone - just stick with it and your persistence will be rewarded with one of the best deals in gaming.

Come for the immersive sim, stay for the storytelling and horror. Prey follows in the footsteps of modern sims like the latest Deus Ex games, but puts a renewed emphasis on optionality when dealing with any number of situations that happen aboard Talos One, a space station that serves as the setting for the entire game. The game throws curveballs at you constantly, starting with the first fifteen minutes and lasting through the duration of the playthrough.

It's not all great, though; the gunplay and combat is not very strong, and the right combination of choices made in the game's skill trees can trivialize the last 30% of the game. Poor choices, alternatively, can strip you of options and leave you without ammo just as the enemy difficulty begins to ramp up. Still, you can mitigate some of these situations thanks to the game's fun and straightforward crafting process.

It may not win any awards, but I was hard pressed to eventually pull myself away from the keyboard every time I sat down to play this game.

While the world itself is not as interconnected as the first Dark Souls, the combat has never been better, which makes it the most accessible of the series. Additionally, the PC version holds up extremely well with no noticeable bugs dragging it down.