Recent reviews by VinroyIsViral

---

---

Lightyear Frontier takes you on a peaceful, sci-fi farming adventure set on the edge of the galaxy. After crash landing on an alien planet, you'll use a high-tech mech to build a new life, gather resources, grow crops, and discover the secrets of your surroundings. The mech-focused gameplay introduces a fresh twist, blending crafting and farming mechanics with exploration.

Pros:

• Stunning visuals and serene atmosphere, perfect for relaxation
  
• Engaging gameplay flow with smooth progression

Cons:

• The mech can feel gimmicky and clunky, especially with the tricky rocket jump mechanic
  
• Weight-based inventory management can be frustrating and tedious

Overall, Lightyear Frontier is a charming experience for fans of farming sims and open-world games. While its early-access state reveals some rough edges, there’s great potential here for a unique and relaxing space-farming adventure as updates roll out.

---

• 0 missable achievements
  
• 1 grindy achievement (Born Lucky)
  
• No paid DLC achievements
  
• No broken achievements
  
• 1 multiplayer achievement (First Spill)

---

---

Brotato is a fast-paced roguelite where you control a heavily armed potato fighting off relentless waves of aliens. With up to 44 unique characters and the ability to wield six weapons at once, the game offers an unpredictable and dynamic experience in each run, keeping things fresh as you fight through 20 progressively difficult waves.

Pros:

• Tons of unique characters with diverse abilities
  
• High replay value thanks to unpredictable item drops, character variety, and adjustable difficulty
  
• Straightforward achievements that unlock naturally as you progress

Cons:

• Repetitive music and sound effects that can become grating after extended play
  

Overall, Brotato is a solid roguelite that balances accessibility and challenge, offering a variety of characters and endless replayability. While its art style charms with nostalgia, the sound design could use more variety. The game provides a simple yet rewarding experience, making this a fun pick for both casual players and achievement hunters alike.

(EDIT: With the release of Brotato's newest DLC, I will make a review regarding that individually later as I have a few... choice words...

---

• 0 missable achievements
  
• 0 grindy achievements
  
• No paid DLC achievements (EDIT: 93 were added with the new Abyss DLC...)
  
• No broken achievements
  
• No multiplayer achievements

---

---

Cult of the Lamb masterfully blends action roguelite mechanics, base-building, and dungeon crawling into a quirky, darkly adorable package. As a resurrected lamb on a mission to establish a cult and take down eldritch gods, you'll find yourself managing followers, slaying enemies, and exploring a world rich in artistic charm.

Pros:

• A unique mix of gameplay styles that keeps things fresh.
  
• Engaging combat with just the right amount of challenge.
  
• Superb art, music, and sound design—cute yet unsettling in all the right ways.

Cons:

• Repetitiveness sets in, especially in the post-game where crusades lose their luster.
  
• Achievement hunting can feel drawn out, with some tasks becoming more of a chore than a challenge.

Overall, while the gameplay can get repetitive, Cult of the Lamb is still a delightful and memorable experience worth your time. Perfect for casual players looking for a unique adventure, but achievement hunters might find the grind a bit tedious.

---

• 1 missable achievement
  
• 3 grindy achievements
  
• No paid DLC achievements
  
• No broken achievements
  
• No multiplayer achievements

Excellent voice acting and a pretty interesting plot line. However, some of the scenes felt like they repeated too often and could've had more variety in their concept. Despite this, the game is overall pretty solid, even with being quite pricey for what you get.

The start of this one was a bit rough, but the build-up was 100% worth it. Another great addition to the series, and I'm looking forward to the 3rd chapter :)

You are but an egg waiting to be born. A selfish desire you will achieve through consumption.

Wingspan is an online version of an already established bird-themed board game. Due to the nature of the game, there isn't really a story or a narrative. Just "simple" bird collection and bird management with friends (and foes).

I won't go into the various intricacies and mechanics of the game, as that would make the review unbelievably dense, but the standard gameplay loop revolves around a simple set of actions. You can either select a new bird, play a bird, gain food, or lay eggs. However, you only have a limited number of turns to do all of these actions, and there are various goals and bonus cards you need to pay attention to at the same time. There are also different food costs for birds, active abilities, and a lot more mechanics that all combine into a quite the strategic game despite the deceptively cute game concept. The game is a joy to play and is one of the few board game concepts out there that reward a competitive spirit while also allowing you to not be outright mean to your friends. However, that doesn't mean this game is without its issues.

As a new player, this game suffers from information overload, as there are SO MANY things you need to grasp in order to play somewhat well. You're usually able to get a grasp on how the game functions after 2-3 full games and maybe some guides, but the online version of Wingspan makes this learning period even more ruthless with its cluttered UI and lackluster tutorial. The tutorial barely does a good job of teaching you the intricacies of the game, and you're much better off just playing matches with some friends or AI to learn the basics. As for the UI, there are so many icons and interfaces that, while useful, make learning the game even more difficult.

The online version of Wingspan also suffers heavily from people leaving mid-game. You can be having an excellent game and just have someone ragequit or forget that it's their turn.

The consequence for the leaver is that they lose 5 karma, which is a fair enough penalty, as you need to play 5 entire games to get that karma back, but it puts people that just have real-life circumstances in an unfortunate situation, as these penalties stack up and eventually put you in a sort of "second-class citizen" status where you are paired with other people who leave games, and you can have a difficult time gaining your karma back, as you don't gain karma from games where someone has left.

Even when disregarding the unfortunate situation for the leaver, the person who did nothing wrong and was playing the game actively is also punished, as they aren't able to gain karma, and they also lose the ability to continue playing with the other active player. They give you an option to keep playing the game with bots, but I feel like there should be an option to replace the inactive player with the bot rather than everyone.

All in all, I absolutely love Wingspan in general, but the online version leaves much to be desired in various areas. If the karma system, leaver situation, and UI clutter were adjusted, then I feel like this version of Wingspan would be in a much better spot. Despite these issues, I highly recommend giving this game a try, as once you understand the full mechanics of the game, there is a ton of fun to be had!

(P.S. You can play all expansions in online mode, so there is no requirement to buy any of the DLC if you can't be asked to pay for it)

Fault - Milestone One is a visual novel where you play as Ritona Reighnvhasta, the royal guardian of the princess of the Kingdom of Rughzenhaide, Selphine Rughzenhaide. Disregarding all the German-like names, you're introduced to the world that these characters live in and their respective magic system.

The story starts off with a bang. You're given an overview of the world, how it functions, its history, its magic system, and more. It isn't overwhelming, but it is enough for you to understand various story points that are shown later. Talking about the later shown story points, we are introduced to one of the combatants in what seems to be a coup against the Kingdom of Rughzenhaide. Without spoiling anything major, I'd say that the opening of the game is VERY jarring compared to the rest of the game due to the content and all the information dumped onto you. It's to the point that you even wonder why they included it. However, due to this being a prologue, the choice is likely due to this. It also effectively makes you feel as lost as the main characters, so that's also a nice bit of immersion, even if it may be unintentional.

Also, as with any good visual novel, this game has wonderful characters. The main two heroines are a nice dynamic of different personalities that mesh well together. The side characters also greatly add to the overall story and the development of the main characters.

The graphics and sound design are also pretty darn good. The graphics make use of frame changes and facial expression shifts but don't have anything you can really call animation. However, this isn't a bad thing, as the art is drawn in a way that is fairly unique to the game while also having various aspects that can be seen in other similar forms of media. The U.I. for the game is also stylized in a way that suits the theme. As for the music, it's very fitting for its respective scenes. It isn't anything I would listen to outside of the game, but I don't find it unpleasant to listen to, even after the 30th loop or so.

Overall, I think this game is pretty good, and I would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of visual novels! This was a great setup for the characters and the world, so I'm looking forward to playing the next entry sometime soon :)

(P.S. Despite what I said about the music, the main menu theme is really nice to listen to)

Astroneer is an open-world crafting game where you play as an astroneer (astronaut + engineer) who explores various planets in an attempt to research, discover, and find out all the secrets that each planet and moon hold.

To start, there isn't really any story to the game. There are things called "curiosities" and other items that hold pieces of lore, but they are something that you can ignore entirely. The main appeal to this game is its gameplay, not the tiny bit of lore that can be found here and there.

As for the gameplay, it's pretty good. However, one major issue I need to talk about before I gush about the gameplay is that the start of your first playthrough is absolutely miserable for the first hour or two. The game has a horrible way of explaining what to do, how to control certain things, and more. The controls feel absolutely clunky, and you will struggle to do a lot of basic tasks. My friend and I genuinely disliked the game at first due to its inability to show the player how to properly do things, so you pretty much need to discover most of what the game has to offer via trial and error or just looking it up (which we did for a lot of things). There is also a mission system present in the game, but that didn't really help us much, either. There is just so much going on in the game that it acts as information overload.

Thankfully, once you get over that learning curve, the game starts to become really enjoyable. There are plenty of things to build, discover, and experiment with. The availability of resources makes it so you need to explore pretty much every planet and moon, allowing you to experience all the different planets that Astroneer has to offer. While some may think this leads to an exhausting grind, I feel like this allows for you to enjoy what a planet has to offer, and then once a planet/moon starts getting boring, you're able to go to the next planet/moon for a whole new environment. I also like how building automatic machines isn't a necessity. This isn't an automation game, but it certainly has the functions to turn it into one if you would like to.

Also, while playing this game in single-player could certainly be enjoyable, I believe the best way to play this game is in multiplayer. Things like dividing tasks and exploring different areas make the game significantly less grindy and more enjoyable, as doing things with a good friend is always nice.

The graphics are also very attractive, as the poly-style graphics are fully embraced and are an aspect of basically everything in the game. The sound design is also wonderful, as sounds like placing items onto storage platforms are very crisp. The background music doesn't really stand out much, but it adds a nice touch to the atmosphere, especially deep within cave layers.

All in all, Astroneer is a rough gem that is clunky in some areas, but overall, it is a pleasure to play. While I wouldn't really want to play this by myself, I found the game to be quite enjoyable with my friend, and I recommend giving this game a try :)

Tender: Creature Comforts is a dating game where you play as a human who is on a dating app called Tender after a prior relationship recently ended. On this app, you can swipe left or right, like most dating apps we have in the real world while discovering and chatting with various alien (and non-alien) looking individuals.

The gameplay consists of you simply looking through various profiles and swiping left or right. If you get a match, then you're able to chat with them with a selection of responses based on how you would react (or would want them to hear if you're into doing that). If you get past the virtual chatting portion, then you will go on actual dates with the person. If the date turns out well, then you have a chance at a second date, which will end the game. If it doesn't work out, well, you start this process all over again.

Due to the gameplay, this game doesn't really have a story but has a ton of small different scenarios with each individual you can talk with. There are some genuine characters on here, as well, with the dating app classics like people swiping right on you and then instantly unmatching once you say something or sex bots. The writing is well done, and every person you interact with feels like the type of person you would actually come across on an actual dating app.

However, I still have some issues with this game despite liking it. Due to this being an indie game, I think there are a lot of promising features that weren't able to be realized. One of the most disappointing things is that you don't see any visuals for your dates, and you are instead going on each date via a text-based interface. It functions exactly the same as the virtual chatting portion, but in this case, you just need to visually imagine what's going on rather than seeing it.

Another disappointing portion of the game is that the number of people you can actually go on dates with is quite low, and your matches tend to repeat after swiping for a bit. There are plenty of people to talk to, but a lot of the options don't even have the ability for you to date them. I'm also not a fan of needing to do relationships I don't really care for in order to unlock certain achievements (ex. poly relationships or hooking up with someone who obviously doesn't really care about you), as I felt pretty uncomfortable with certain scenarios.

Thankfully, all of the aforementioned issues are mostly minor gripes, as I found the majority of the game to be fairly enjoyable. This game doesn't overstay its welcome, and it provides you with the right amount of enjoyment with good time value for the cost. I recommend giving this game a try if you like the game's concept!

(P.S. Time to tell my girlfriend I just finished playing a game that is basically a simulation of Tinder xddd)