Recent reviews by A Vacuum Full of Bees

ABANDONED GAME. DO NOT BUY IT.

I put a decent amount of time into this Dwarf Fortress knockoff and enjoyed it for what it was, but knowing that the dev bailed on it, I cannot in good conscience recommend it, as it is woefully, debilitatingly unfinished in a lot of ways once you get below the surface.

Just buy actual Dwarf Fortress, which is now available on Steam and has graphics and everything anyways.

A phenomenal "bullet heaven"(I prefer that term to "vampire survivor-like") game with an immense cast, great upgrades, mechanics, a reasonable 20-minute time limit, and adorable visuals. the progression via the storefront in the main menu or the Holo House area works really well. the music is outstanding, I like most of the ingame versions better than the original song versions, even. and all of this is 100% free, the dev refuses to charge money for it, despite people's protests. there's really no reason not to give it a try, even if you have no experience with Hololive or vtubers in general, it's just a really, really good game on its own. There's zero fanservice or creepiness, it's just a cute, fun game.

special shoutout to the fishing minigame in Holo House, which has the best way to mitigate tedium I've experienced: the higher your unbroken combo, the more fish you get with each catch. I managed to get over 200 in one combo once and was catching 20+ fish with each cast, which means I basically never have to worry about getting tuna, shrimp, or clownfish ever again. the fishing minigame itself is also good, a basic simon says style that gets faster the higher your combo and/or the better the fish you've hooked is.

love this game. I've maxed out the fandom rank for like 12 of the characters and am working on getting the rest of them too, it's almost turned into an idler for me because I can get certain builds going and leave it running while I watch or read stuff.

For an early access bootleg pokemon-factorio-ARK-valheim-zelda, this certainly is one of the most solid early access games I've ever played. It's buggy as ♥♥♥♥, it's got store-bought assets out the ass-ets, my character T-poses at random intervals, my Pals routinely get stuck in trees, on top of buildings, or in terrain and starve until I despawn them and redeploy them on a regular basis. my bases get raided all the time by enemies who pathfind towards it, walk into a wall, get stuck in a giant blob of enemies, then decide it's not worth it and turn around and leave.

and yet, the core gameplay loop of "punch trees, build new part of base, deploy new Pal, assign some things to be built at the workbenches, go explore for a while and catch a bunch of stuff, go back home, build new stuff you've learned since last there, assign new work pals, go explore, level up, go back to base, etc etc" is so SHOCKINGLY well done here, and I emphasize that, I AM SHOCKED that this game is anything but ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ garbage. I have had this game on my wishlist since the first trailer, not because I thought it would be good, but because I thought it would be an amusing spectacle. the custom models holding unity asset guns just screamed "terrible trash", the world looked like a cutscene and not what it would actually be, I thought it would be far more restrictive than it is.

I'm currently level 35. I've just started firing up full blown assembly lines in my base, and set up a second ore-farming base one island over. the gameplay loop is still rock solid, I've yet to explore a good 3/4 of the map, I'm taking it slowly, catching everything in a given area before moving to new ones. the actual combat and gameplay of fighting hostile Pals alongside your own Pal, dodging attacks and whittling them down before you recall your own pal so they don't finish the opponent off, then spamming pal spheres until the damn thing stays in the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ball, well, it's not the best combat I've ever played, and sure as ♥♥♥♥ the pals love to bug out mid-combat and get caught on trees or whatever if they're particularly large(especially Mammorest), but it's been mostly great fun.

When I saw the first trailer years ago, I thought it was a hilariously cynical, low budget cash grab, with a tongue-in-cheek underlying message. I was wrong. there's no subtext. there's just text. I mean, they're literally called plantations. but it is tons of fun. and apparently sold like 20 million damn copies, which is nuts

Scuse me while I leave a positive review for an incredible fighting game that extremely brokebrain idiots are getting THE MOST MAD IN THE WORLD about. touch grass lmfao, hey guess what, mike z was a freak and ahad probably had some capital P Problems based on his character designs, and both at minimum left the project if not got ousted outright. don't throw a tantrum over a few pixels, it's the saddest thing imaginable lmao

game's tutorial is stellar, the gameplay is fantastic, the visuals amazing, and that they've continued to update it since I last played it in 2017 is a testament to their dedication. surely it's not a problem I'm reviewing it 6 years past when I last played it, after all pretty much all these knuckledraggers giving it negative reviews either have never played it or haven't played it years, they just are mad that nazi and pedophilic imagery are being removed from the game because their incel-ass brains crank it to that stuff nightly. die mad lol

I have been back into MTG since Eldraine Standard(Eldraine, Ikoria, Theros, Zendikar, etc) and since that was also the era of covid, almost the entirety of that was spent on the MTG Arena client, and now Arena on Steam. Arena is a shockingly good example of Magic as a game, with the absolutely absurd number of cards available somehow not breaking the entire system over its knee, even with new sets being released at a frankly upsetting frequency. Almost every single card interaction possible works exactly how it should, with very few exceptions.

the quality of life additions to the game, such as automatic triggers for card abilities in reaction to a change in the game state(such as cards with "when someone casts a spell" automatically activating in response), or automatic tapping of lands to cast a spell, and the auto tapper USUALLY selecting lands intelligently so you don't accidentally lock yourself out of casting other spells by wasting all of a particular mana type, these are AMAZINGLY GOOD features. So many times in paper magic, my opponent or I would miss triggers or incorrectly activate things or whatever, but arena eliminates that human error for the most part.

the aesthetic of the game is top shelf. simplistic displays for cards can be expanded to show full details, the sound effects are generally perfect for each card, the visuals are generally pretty basic but just feel right. a really weak creature like a 1/1 hitting the opponent directly basically makes a "TINK!" sound, while a massive 15/15 monstrosity walloping them in the face makes a suitably appropriate and crunchy "THUD-BOOM" effect. They used to be far more interested in giving special cards lots of flair, lots of mythic rares and some lesser rares would get visual effects on the field; playing Korvold, Fae-Cursed King would have the dragon himself fly in and land on the card before disappearing, or casting the "destroy all creatures" part of Realm-Cloaked Giant would have a giant hand extend over the battlefield and "grasp" the field, crushing everything, before pulling away again. It was a neat effect, but as more sets came out, you could really see the dev team get stretched thin as fewer and fewer cards got special treatments like that, until they basically stopped altogether. I miss the over the top effects when someone played a game-ending legendary creature or ultimate spell.

community interaction is minimal at best. you can get basic emotes of short quotes from zendikar rising and "good game" or "hello!", or emojis from each set of characters doing a short animation(often referencing some meme, like doge or drakeposting). friends list exist but might as well not. you cannot directly interact with other players outside of those emotes and emojis, and those can be turned off to eliminate even that connection. and honestly, good. magic players are often pretty toxic and get super mad if they're losing, last thing the game needs is a chat function, half the player base would be banned for slurs within a week. there is a "time rope" function to prevent people from taking too long during their turns or give people enough time to reconnect if they disconnect, but this can be abused by awful people to drag out a game, sometimes for half an hour longer or more than it should be, if they're really dedicated and wasting every second. it sucks, but I'm not sure what the alternative is.

the economy is garbage. straight up. it's pretty easy to START playing for free, but it's way more difficult to KEEP playing for free. the starter decks are reasonable and have lots of good cards in them generally, but to get to be competitive versus top tier decks, you're gonna have to put in a lot of time or drop some cash. I used to be fine with buying stuff like the battle pass for each set, you get a TON of stuff worth way more than the initial cost if you reach the end of it, but nowadays I don't even bother. the grind is real, and imo they should just institute a monthly subscription plan to allow people access to the entire card library in exchange for like 10-15 bucks a month. it'd certainly be worth it compared to buying paper mtg packs, have you seen the prices they're charging for magic cards these days?

opening packs in arena gives you less cards than paper packs, but rares and mythics are duplicate protected, meaning once you have 4, you won't get any more of them until you have every other card in the set they're from, and once you DO start getting those, it'll give you gems(the real money currency) instead of the excess dupes. not too bad, imo. as well, opening packs earns you Wildcards, either through number of packs opened progression(guaranteed in addition to the cards in the packs, every 6 packs = a rare WC, every 18 packs = a mythic WC, and common/uncommon WCs are much more frequent than that) or as random inserts in the packs themselves, and Wildcards can be used to craft any card you want of the given rarity, 1 per wildcard. there's an option to buy a wildcard bundle, but never get that, it's a scam for lazy bums, you basically get that many just opening the equivalent money amount of packs anyways.

playing draft or sealed, where you open packs and build a deck with multiple other people and then compete to earn wins to basically recup the cost of the draft/sealed you just did, is an absolute blast. there is an up front cost, but you keep any cards you get from them, and if you manage to reach 5-7 wins, you not only get some extra free packs to open, but also get back the entry fee plus a bit extra. so if you're good enough at drafting, you can "go infinite", and make enough from drafts to play indefinitely as well as supply you with all the cards you'll need.

all in all, Arena is a surprisingly polished, incredibly complex game that has managed to incorporate even the most obtuse rules of the game into itself(they recently added Emrakul, The Promised End, which literally lets you take control of your opponent when you cast it and play as them for a turn), but there are certainly downfalls to it. the time commitment or monetary cost can be significant, and there is zero community inside the game itself, all that has to be done outside of it, so if you are looking for that you won't find it here.

but if you just want to play magic, it's the best digital rendition of the first and best trading card game ever made.

I had heard good things about this, and saw a short video about it, so I decided to give it a go. My first run went well, I beat the first two zones and was making my way through the third when I encountered an enemy I couldn't deal enough damage per round to kill before it killed me. Tried another run to see if it was any more fun with a different build centered around chain lightning and single-hit bombs, made it to the boss of zone 3, came relatively close to killing it, but got worn down over many turns by its constantly accurate shots.

I realized at this point that 111 minutes into this game, I hadn't had a single spark of "fun" the entire time. just following the directions and going by the numbers, making a build to progress. somehow this game makes peggle even more boring. I requested a refund and do not recommend this game.

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I can't believe I haven't written a review for one of my favorite games of all time.

Dungeons of Dredmor is an incredible roguelike. It's a liiiiittle buggy, but sometimes that bugginess is part of the charm. Other times you get stuck in geometry by accident and crash to desktop. It's a SOMEWHAT stable game, but it does sometimes hardlock, so make sure you save frequently(I recommend right before and after heading down a floor).

the classes are varied and creative, with literally over four dozen different skill trees to choose from, you pick seven and head off to your likely rapid doom. Most skill trees have viability, there's very few out and out stinkers, and even then those can be propped up by better skills or even buoy good skills into amazing skills when combo'd together.

the humor is top notch, it's slapstick and absurd, with some biting wit and extremely sarcastic and beaten-down enemies who spout one-liners at you upon aggroing. One of my favorites is, say, busting down a door and revealing a Diggle who says "only two more days until I can retire" as it charges at you, or "Strength in numbers, boys, strength in numbers" or "what, you again?". The equipment is often referential and ridiculous, with flavor text often alluding to silly things like the Dwarven Plasticsmiths. I really love the earnest humor of the game, and the often ridiculous enemies like crabs who wear knight armor, eldritch potatos, and diggles who have spent way too much time at the gym are a regular occurence.

again, I love this game's humor: https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/391049170413542381/65D62805CEC02C489C3A3EF772F2C55163DB9B8B/

the combat is turn-based, you take a step or perform an action, so does everything else. This lets you think out your next moves and plan around movement patterns of enemies, but like chess can also quickly put you into checkmate if you're too hasty. And you WILL die. A lot. Much like every classic roguelike in the vein of Rogue or Nethack, the game is out to get you, and make sure you know it. Drink from a magical fountain and you might find a shiny ring in the bowl, or you might be drinking acid and melt to death in two turns. Think you can take that boss-class enemy from a prior level? surprise, it's corrupted your equipment and now you're suddenly slower than everything and it two-shots you. Playing cleverly and safely is often the way to go, but fast and loose can get you through a run much quicker at a much greater risk. Attacking a shopkeep might let you loot the shops of all the possibly-insane loot they have, but it also incurs the wrath of a boss-class monster who summons infinite, extremely strong minions that can easily overwhelm you with numbers.

Death in Dungeons of Dredmor is often frustrating, but tends to teach you something each time. Don't kick a door when you're at one health or you might stub your toe and die. Don't open a door without an escape route or a Monster Zoo behind that door with 100+ monsters crammed in it might overflow into where you are and completely engulf you. Don't assume that you'll always waltz unscathed over that Acid Arrow Trap trigger with your heightened trap sense ability and never set it off. Again, hubris is one's greatest enemy in this game.

Beating the game is fairly uneventful, you fight an insanely tough boss and then get an end screen. It's a small game made by a small group of people(who have long since vanished since the studio blew up ages ago), so the cracks do show occasionally. But I love the rough, silly artstyle and the jank. I've beaten it countless times and had a blast almost every time, once you get the hang of things try hitting Random at the generation screen and see how far you can make it with a random build, it can get pretty ridiculous.

The DLC is generally good and tends to add a lot of variety. Realm of the Diggle Gods adds 5 more floors which are a little bit samey but I still like them. Conquest of the Wizardlands adds further shenanigans in the forum of alternate dimensions, which can be fairly mundane and crappy, but can also have lots of ridiculous items and hidden alcoves, it also adds a storage dimension where you can toss all your crap. The bundle package for DoD is 7 bucks, and is an incredible bargain for this amazing roguelike.

My screenshot page for DoD with a variety of mostly-nonsensical screenshots is: https://gtm.you1.cn/id/spessmarine/screenshots/?appid=98800

It plays well, the mechanics are solid, the absolutely bonkers, pixel-by-pixel, always dynamically changing world physics are phenomenal(fire crawls along wood realistically and evaporates water, liquid leaks through tiny cracks in terrain or gushes through larger ones, sand work like sand do)

but...I don't think I can recommend it. Not in its current state. It's fun to mess around with for a short time, a few hours, the world is vast and detailed in design, there's lots of secrets to find(boy howdy the surface has a lot more to it than expected, eh?) but...there's just not much to draw me back into doing run after run. The balancing is off, the wands being absurdly stupid busted at times and useless at others is fine, make it to a safe zone, modify the wands to suit your needs if you can. Sure. Make an infinitely-firing bifurcated gatling machine gun ricochet bullet wand that just floods the screen in so much firepower everything dies as soon as it wanders into view, that's great fun. The potions and upgrades are generally fairly standard but with some interesting variations. But the sheer randomness is still too unbalanced for a roguelike, spawning four wands within spitting distance of the entrance one run, spawning no wands whatsoever in the first two layers in another run. That sort of thing is just not great to deal with, a more balanced spread would make things leagues better. Enter the Gungeon had a similar problem with ramping up at the start, spending 10-15 minutes rummaging around for stuff so you don't get murdered instantly upon setting foot in the third layer to snipers and sentry guns has already gotten super tedious and that's only with a few hours of playtime.

It's very promising and the engine is fantastic, the pixel style is solid and all, but I don't think I can recommend it as is, it still needs work. And a run button. I'm aware that'd break some balance in the game, but eh, ♥♥♥♥ it, the game's too damn slow with the plodding jaunt you move at. You can rocket upwards or plummet downwards, but the only ways to move faster horizontally is to find the speedy potion or get lucky in one of the safe rooms and find the run speed upgrade in the random upgrade area.

But yeah, I enjoyed fiddling with it for a bit, and the terraria-esque combat is fine, but it's just not hooking me, unfortunately.

Picked this up after seeing it on a whole bunch of game of the year lists. I've put about ~10 hours into it now, and it's well worth a buy especially if it's on sale for 10bux or less. Cleared the Warrior's entire route, first stages of everyone else's, and the first two of the Jester's route. The variety in combat mechanics between characters is stark, and the level they go to to provide variety is kinda insane. They REWROTE EVERY SINGLE GAMEPLAY MECHANIC JUST FOR A SINGLE LEVEL just to play along with the gimmick of that level(Parallel Universe), for christ's sake. The Jester plays with a deck of cards that randomly flow into the playfield, and at least in his first quest, you can get a compounding runaway effect so strong that it can sometimes kill enemies on turn one. It's crazy, and it all works so well. The humor is mostly quaint, rather twee stuff, trying to be disaffected at times or VERY internetty at others, not everything lands for sure, but it's definitely made me laugh at least a few times and all the characters are great.

Runs are pretty short, I don't think anything lasted more than a half hour without either beating it or getting killed, so it's great pick-up and play stuff. Only had one major bug, a crash-to-desktop when saving midrun that then consistently CTD'd whenever I tried to load the save which super sucked, but I was able to just restart the run and continue on.

Definitely a good time-to-money ratio, if that's a thing that matters to you. There's at least 36 missions in the game, probably more, since there's another unlockable character once you finish everything(it's probably a dice form Lady Luck, which I would love to see)

edit: oh yeah the music is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ outstanding, the battle music is weird, funky, and flows so well with the gameplay. only problem is the map floors often are simply silent, which might be a bug, and once you start getting good at the game, you tend to not get to listen to the battle music much which is a shame, since Chipzel, the composer, makes really good chiptune music.