Recent reviews by Cirom

Supergiant does it again. What more is there to say, other than that this may very well have topped Bastion as my Favourite Game of All Time?

Ya like LUFTRAUSERS?

This is that, but way better.

Also the OST bops

Honestly, my opinion of this game was kinda soured with the Artifacts update, but this update kinda seals the deal.

Don't get me wrong, there IS a lot to like about this game. The combat is great, gathering items is satisfying and the art is absolutely fantastic. But there's a lot of small issues which really rise to sour the experience as a whole.

For one, the balance issues. For a roguelike where death means a complete reset, this game sure does like to oneshot you with enemies which are incredibly different to react to. The final boss makes this all the more obvious, with an attack which quite literally has him teleport beside you and instantly attack, with no time to react at all, and the attack tends to do over 1k damage to boot (Most survivors don't even REACH that level of health). Make your "Omai wa mou shindeiru" jokes here.

For two, the game tends to force you to play in a specific way. You're heavily encouraged to play as fast as possible, as the difficulty of the enemies rises steadily over time. My best tip is to make sure you always know where at least two chests are at any one time, and never let your money get too high. (That means you're not picking up enough items!!) Activate the teleporter as soon as you've opened up all the chests you see, or even slightly before. Don't scour the map looking for any "straggler" chests because otherwise you'll just spend too long running around when you could be getting more plentiful items from the next stage. Of course, some of the maps don't help - some hide chests, and some are just so big that you just spend too much time just navigating the area instead of looting it.

And finally... 1.0 just felt rushed. It's actually possible to softlock yourself in the area before the final boss, which is a rather anticlimactic way to end the run. Between that, the balance issues and the fact that a fair few "this will be added" notes just being outright removed (instead of, y'know, giving the content that was promised)... I definitely feel like the update should have been delayed.

It's strange. I do enjoy playing the game, but with how poorly thought out some of the game is, I cannot recommend it in its current state.

EDIT: It occurs to me that a hotfix released *as* I wrote this review. I think the softlock got fixed, but otherwise I believe the review is a bit accurate. I'll update it later.

This is the absolute worst beta I've ever seen. And I'm one to play Early Access titles.

Honestly, the main issue with this game - which kills the entire experience - stems down to one thing: the difficulty scaling. Each time you play, you're given a few levels of a random difficulty, and you get to pick between three of them. The problem is that if you're just starting out, the random difficulty levels you're given are often *actually* impossible to beat. I was given missions between levels 10-45 (I was level 0 - yeah, it doesn't even start at 1). Enemies in those missions were either one-shotting the entire party or doing so much damage that it was impossible to keep up anyway. (Heck, the Lv44 mission I was given ended up one-shotting the Warrior WHEN HE WAS BLOCKING)

It was only by complete and utter chance that I was given a level 5 mission - after about 25 failed missions - and managed to beat a boss. But by then, my interest was completely gone.

It's a worthy expansion alright. Shame some people are having issues on launch again, but if it's anything like base MHWorld, expect them to be fixed within the month.

You know, I'm surprised at how much I've enjoyed this one. It sure 'aint perfect, but there's a lot to do now and even 60h in, I've noticed new gameplay mechanics open up. Maybe I'm just slow to progress, or maybe I'm just easily distracted by base building and the new music maker. I'm having fun with the game, though.

Some people compare it to Elite: Dangerous, and I could see the comparison - but I guess I don't want a full-on simulation, I just want a fun little game. And No Man's Sky definitely feels a lot more "gamey" than Elite: Dangerous, and I've grown to prefer it because of that. (Not having to grind for ages to get a decent ship also helps, too.)

Also, I can play it in VR when I feel like it.

Such a creative game! I love the differences between all the characters (except Inventor, she's kinda lame) and the unique gear and how they affect eachother is really interesting. Plus, the gameplay doesn't get repetitive like most turn-based RPGs as the player is actively participating as the turn goes by, instead of just lining up a set of actions and then watching to see if they work. (It makes a world of a difference, I tell ya.)

It also helps that rolling high is not necessarily the best option in every scenario, and each run isn't particularly long, so you never end up going into auto-pilot. It's a perfect pick-up-and-play game, with runs taking less than an hour to complete. The perfect length for a roguelike, IMO. Though, what happens within the runs depends on what you get and what Episode you're playing - sd the replay value is there.

As someone who absolutely hates most games with turn-based combat, I'm surprised at how much I got into this one. A contender for my personal GOTY 2019, for sure!

As someone who hasn't played games similar (people keep comparing this to Left 4 Dead), I'm surprised I'm enjoying this as much as I am. There's a lot of aliens to shoot, a lot of minerals to mine and a lot of dwarven quips which happen as you do so. It has the perfect blend of silly and serious which doesn't feel too over-the-top, yet you never feel too dragged down because the game never takes itself too seriously. I mean, this game has a "salute" button. Its only purpose is to make your dwarf shout an inspiring quote at the other players on your team. (Or your robotic companion, if you're playing alone. The robotic companion also makes dog sounds, and barks back if you salute at him.)

Plus, the game's getting near-monthly updates which provide genuine improvements to the game, no microtransactions whatsoever and the devs are actively listening to player feedback and hotfixing/balancing weapons accordingly.

ROCK! AND! STONE!

If there's a reason to get A Hat in Time, it's this DLC. Nyakuza Metro is a really awesome level which has FAR higher production value than the base 4 levels in A Hat in Time (there's actual lip syncing in the cutscenes now, it's kinda bizarre) and Online Party is just stupid fun, letting you play the game in co-op with a friend.

I'll admit, I originally got this purely for the Online Party and the ability to play as Bow Kid, but after playing through the entire game and eventually getting to the Nyakuza Metro levels... well, my favourite level isn't Dead Bird Studio anymore, that's for sure.

Also, stickers are fun and someone made a mod to let you spray paint stickers all over The Spaceship. I now want to collect all the rare stickers. This DLC is amazing.

The only real downside I can think of for this DLC is that the doors are colour-coded. As someone who's colourblind, this got a little confusing.

I'm torn on this one.

On one hand, I really like the fast-paced Sonic-style action that this game has, and it's basically a 3D version of the original title. I really love the fast-paced gameplay, Fark's abilities are fun to use and being able to parry everything is sweet - though not quite as satisfying as it was in the first game due to it being WAY easier to do.

On the other hand, the game itself feels a LOT shorter than the first game - my first somewhat-slow playthrough was just 2 hours long, and I ended up blitzing a new, full playthrough Hard Mode in a single hour. IIRC, the original Spark took around 5 hours for me to beat the first time, and then another 5 hours for what is essentially the game's EX Mode. While this game doesn't have any equivalent to Fark's Story from the first game, it does have all the difficulty levels available from the get-go.

Couple that with the abilities all feeling very similar, without nearly the variety that they had in the first game. Each ability has some light attacks with [X], some heavy attacks with [Y] and a chargeable special with [RB]. That's the entire moveset for every ability in the game. Some abilities have some minor adjustments (Edgy can airdash three times in the air, Brawler gets a longer version of the dash) but other than that, they all feel identical. Contrast to the first game, where the abilities felt very varied with unique movesets and mastering them felt very satisfying. Even the first demo for Spark 2 had more variety in its abilities, which makes me wonder why they all got simplified for the final version. (Especially Biker! It feels so gutted compared to what it was in the first demo.)

Despite all those complaints though, I can't exactly say I disliked this game. It's still very fun and I don't regret playing it, but I wish it had more to it. While I do prefer Spark 1... I don't think this game is bad, by any means.

Also the soundtrack is just as legendary as the original, though a few songs from the first game were used. (Not even remixed!)