Recent reviews by AnarKey

I'm so glad I decided to revisit Trine after all these years. The platforming is as visceral as ever, it still looks amazing in spite of slightly dated graphics, and those iconic voices sure haven't lost their edge.

The game is fairly short (10-15 hours) and won't offer much replayability unless you want to try speedrunning it (to which the game would lend itself pretty well I'd say). As such I'd advise buying it on sale if you can afford to wait.

This classic masterpiece of the genre is a must-play for any platformer enthusiast, yet even neophytes or those that usually don't like platformers will enjoy its unique and honestly quite magical formula.

Regions of Ruin is far from perfect, or even great for that matter, but it has heart and I had an undeniably good time playing it hence my recommendation, with a few reservations. Do read on to see if this game is for you.

As far as gameplay goes, it's a pretty simple side-scroller hack-n-slash with basic RPG elements. You open your map to pick a region to explore, kill and plunder everything within, go back to your base camp to make some upgrades, level up your character or hire some companions, rinse and repeat. Heavy emphasis on the repeat. No kidding this game is extremely repetitive.

This is in part due to the very limited range of combat tools you're provided. No magic, no ranged other than throwing axes, no special moves outside of a useless power attack and a dash you'll constantly be spamming. At least there's stealth, though due to the 2D it's useless in most situations during the early game, when you would actually need it.

Which leads me to my second point, the inconsistent difficulty. While the game starts out quite challenging, requiring you to make use of all of the few mechanics available to you, by mid game all difficulty has gone out the window as your character has now become insanely overpowered through a combination of multiple unbalanced mechanics.

The late game feels pretty bare bones and unpolished as there's not much to work towards once you've unlocked all end game gear and buildings, which happens very fast. Beyond that point, fully exploring the map is a pointless endeavour but I did it anyways cause I had fun doing so. Then you also have a final quest line that involves a lot of jumping puzzles leading to a somewhat anti-climactic boss fight.

So yeah in all likelihood this game isn't going to change your life or provide you with many memorable moments, but sometimes you just want a low-effort time waster. If that's what you're looking for, then Regions of Ruin should fulfill this purpose beautifully, and if you pick it up on sale like I did, it will do so at a bargain.

I'm trine to think of something bad about this game but I just can't...

It's everything the first two games were and then some.

Gameplay is super smooth, it gave me the same feeling I had when I first discovered the original Trine, which upon revisiting afterwards I realized Frozenbyte somehow managed to improve upon perfection.

But the visuals... The visuals are just... So... Beautiful. They really outdid themselves on that one. You know that feeling when you're looking at a beautiful landscape at the end of a long walk to reach the mountain peak? Well I felt the video game version of that about every ten minutes of playing this game. Just breath taking stuff really.

The puzzles for the most part are fairly simple, which is good because the main strength of this game is this feeling of free flow you get as you move with grace and agility through a level, overcoming obstacles in quick succession, and I found the level design to stay congruent with this idea throughout the game.

One aspect I found to perhaps be lacking is the combat, which didn't offer much variety and very little challenge outside of the boss fights. But this not being the focus of the game, I don't think it detracts much from it, just don't buy it if that's the only thing you're interested in.

So overall I'd say the game's difficulty is fairly well balanced as it threw enough challenges at me to keep me engaged but at the same time I never got stuck on anything for very long.

A very considerate addition to the game was the map that lets you load in at any checkpoint previously visited, which is perfect for a completionist like me as it pretty much removes the need for a walkthrough since you at least get a general idea of where to look and don't have to replay through an entire level if you've missed something.

You can probably tell from my long drawn out review that I feel pretty strongly about this. That's because right off the bat when I started playing this game put a smile on my face which stayed through to the end. Not a lot of games can make that claim I assure you.

So if you're feeling a bit down pick up Trine 4, it'll sort you out.

A perfect conclusion to this masterpiece of a series.

The scope of the puzzles is extended even more here, to an almost dizzying point. Truly the best evolution possible from the first two games, and yet it doesn't take anything away from them. The gameplay is also a bit more refined, and the puzzles rely more on logic and less on minute observation skills.

I would say the amazing graphics finally get to truly shine with those fully fledged rooms and cutscenes but they also sort of meet their limits here... Still visually very pleasing where it matters anyways.

Would be a perfectly fine game even without the alternate endings, but those added even more depth and complexity to the story and I enjoyed going through them all, thankfully they didn't make the process too grindy.

A word of advice, you might want to turn off the hints in the options, they tend to make the game way too easy and they're kinda hard to ignore... You'll still have a lot of fun even if you play with them though so it's up to you.

I strongly recommend buying all three games and playing them in numerical order for the nice seamless progression this offers, though if for some reason you were hellbent on only buying one, then this one would definitely get you the most brain for your bucks.

Short and sweet like the first one, this second act kicks it up a notch by expanding the scope of its puzzles, thereby further developing the cool, dark atmosphere that makes this series so appealing.

This short puzzle game is an absolute gem.

The ingenious enigmas, the perfectly calibrated difficulty, the mysterious elements of plot, the very tactile feel of the interactions, and of course the stunning visuals, it all combines into a very engaging and satisfying experience.

This game's only flaw is how short it is.

I found this minimalist strategy game to be quite pleasant and relaxing, perfect for playing when you want to share your attention between a game and a podcast or something.

It may seem a bit difficult at first but it's actually pretty easy once you understand the mechanics and learn how to manage your time and resources efficiently, which is a fun process in and of itself.

Accounting for a bit of trial and error, it should take you about 5 hours to complete the game a first time, and at least double that if you're going for 100% achievements though I should warn you it gets a bit boring after day 40-50 when there's nothing left to do but turning the game into a lagfest by recruiting preposterous amounts of archers.

As such I wouldn't recommend buying this game at full price as you won't get much replay value out of it, but definitely do pick it up on sale if it sounds like an experience you'd enjoy.

Oh and I should also mention the pixel art is quite striking, especially the beautiful water reflections.

Under "More Like This" on the store page, Steam suggested Fallout 76. I disagree, this game doesn't have any bugs.

What fascinated me about this game was how, below a somewhat innocuous layer of tear-jerking sentimentalism and cheesy humour, it seamlessly brings you to contemplate such deep themes as death, purpose, memory, identity, and the meaning of life.

It does so very subtly, all in the subtext, without you even realising that it's there. I think the superficial layer while certainly pleasant, wouldn't be enough on its own to justify the success of this game and how deeply it affects players.

In that sense, this is what made this game a short, but unforgettable experience for me and why I would recommend it to anyone with a brain and a heart.

I should also say I'm usually not a fan of point & click games but the writing was so powerful that it allowed me to temporarily overcome my dislike of the genre.

Cute easy puzzle game with beautiful artwork that tells a story about something, not sure what and that's okay. Great value for the price.