บทวิจารณ์ล่าสุดโดย Mindshadow

A short but sweet visual novel about the benefits and risks of making friends with strange people on wonderful islands. The art and soundtrack were great throughout, and the story had plenty of the little details that make a world actually believable, no matter how strange the things that happen in it might turn out to be.

Picked up this game in the Summer Steam Sale - I'd never heard of it before then, and wow, was I missing out apparently. This is one of the best platformers I've played in a while, and certainly the most distinctive in art style that I've ever played, period. The whole style of the game looks like any given scene from it could be painted on the side of a Greek vase, and it's this 2D art styling that really gives the game its unique quality, coupled with a solid soundtrack and voice acting, it really sell the 'world' of Apotheon.

The combat system is very solid (though it takes some getting used to) and there are tons of weapons, most of which you'll have to use because there is a breakage mechanism so you'll eventually (or quickly) bust your preferred one if you use it too heavily. Sometimes it can feel a little clunky, but when it works, it works well - there's nothing quite as amusing as smacking a cyclops in the back of the head with a boulder or trading spear thrusts with a demigod (or introducing Ares to 'sticky bombs'... heh heh).

If I had one thing to criticize, it would be that the game doesn't checkpoint except when you move between areas, so with the levels being very large, this can be a minor problem, at least early on when you might get murdered by beastmen in a swamp or something. You can save whenever you want out of combat, but this convenience feature actually feels like kind of a downside when the game is as immersive as Apotheon is. Popping out to the menu to save so you don't lose too much progress on an oops really breaks the rhythm of it.

But that's a minor problem in a game that's otherwise fantastic.

The Aral Sea gets a lot less screen time than other industrial disaster areas, probably because it's hard to set a first person shooter there. But it's nonetheless one of the more fascinating/horrifying spots on the planet. And this is the Aral Sea as myth, in a sense. The quest to bring back the lost water that comes to consume the efforts of several people who are driven to try and return what is gone.

And in the sense of storyline and lore, and the immersive quality of its soundtrack and the distinctive voices of the characters, Residue is fantastic. In terms of actual gameplay though, it can be a bit rough... as a platformer some of the areas leave a bit to be desired, and the swimming is odd, but it's well checkpointed and doesn't really punish you for failure unless you miss the chance to torment some seagulls for achievements. Each of the characters moves quite uniquely (don't expect the old man to go bounding around the landscape for example) which makes for varied play. And the game isn't really long enough for any of its faults to get really grating, and it's regularly switching characters and throwing bits of lore at you which keeps things moving.

Don't expect a tight platforming experience. Do expect a good story.

When I backed this game on Kickstarter, I did it because I, too, have wanted to experience the pure joy of a cat knocking things down with no repercussions. To feel the pleasure of being a living force of entropy, existing only to destroy (and occasionally emit a meow). To see the primal majesty of a book ejected from a high shelf by the stern swat of a paw, arcing gently through the air to crash to the ground far below.

This game has made that dream a reality.

A very, very short game that subverts the typical story of the starving artist who hits it big through heart and patience. I lol'd at the ending - poor Vinty!

Fun, free and not exactly a huge investment of time.

Fun rhythm game with a really inventive hook (a 'reverse shooter').

Would un-shoot alien spacecraft again.

A simple but immersive game where you play a mother badger trying to shepard five cubs through the merciless natural world, eating everything in sight to try and keep them alive. You will dread the darkness, fear the fire, and hurl invective skyward at those ****ing eagles. There's no real complex mechanics at work, and the fact that everything is pretty straightforward lends itself greatly to the immersive experience. There's no stopping to try and remember how to do something. You pretty much run forward and bite things. Or threaten to bite things. You're a badger, biting is kind of your thing.

The only frustrating point I ran into was when the mother badger apparently bugged and wouldn't drop a piece of food. This created obvious eating-related problems for her cubs on that level... A cub had passed out from hunger and then been eaten in the darkness, so I guess she was hanging onto it to try and revive him, but it was too late for that. I guess the moral of that story is: don't dwell on the past, you've got hungry badgerlets to feed in the present.

9/10 would learn valuable life lessons again

Saving the kingdom has never been so... relaxing.

Hero of the Kingdom is a very straightforward point-and-click/hidden object game that is cheerfully content with what it is. Each task is simply given a set of resources necessary to complete it, and if you have those resources, you can clear the task. After all, of course the hero of the story makes it through, why pretend otherwise? The hidden objects on each map can usually be converted directly into money, or used to clear various unlock tasks, which are used to gain access to various resources you need.

You do end up feeling less than of a hero, and more of a military quartermaster, sourcing local materials and labor to win the campaign against the Dark Lord. But this is what makes the game so relaxing. No timing, no complicated clicking, just knowing where to get the parts you need to assemble your victory. It rewards remembering who sells what, and being able to find eggs in a forest map, rather than actions per second. Even the achievements are hardly difficult (though I really had to search for that last bird's nest).

Everything about the game is very polished, as well. The soundtrack fits, the maps progress cleanly from one to the other, and you can always get the resources you need if you're willing to go kill and skin a few wild animals. Even if you sell something you need later in the game to get the money for an immediate goal, there's always someone who will sell it right back to you, usually for the same price you got in the first place.

This is a good game to spend a few hours relaxing with.

Sometimes people ask of games "is it art?" but in this case, it's more accurate to ask "is it a game?". This is not by any means a criticism, really, as the puzzle/rhythm game Ephemerid is just fun. It wants to be awesome, and invites you to help increase the awesome level through your participation. The puzzles are simple and straightforward, and the rhythm sections are all about grabbing things and redirecting them to where they need to go. None of the rhythm sections can be failed, and you'll rarely find yourself looking at the game and wondering "hey, what am I supposed to do here?" which keeps everything progressing along at a brisk pace - but you're never punished for taking a moment to poke something to see what happens.

The real "game" aspect of it only comes in if you want to get the achievements, particularly the one for completing the rhythm sections perfectly.

The papercraft artwork exactly fits the play style of the game, the soundtrack is awesome, the story the game portrays, and the whole experience of playing it is great. If you like rhythm games, relaxing puzzles, rock opera and fending off the occasional papercraft spider attack this is definitely a game you'll enjoy killing an hour or two with.

Every now and then, one gets the itch to descend into a tomb of madness and arcane power, delving ever deeper into the earth while fielding a veritable army of minions to keep impudent heroes at bay. This game scratches that itch very effectively in a combination of base defense and puzzle gaming.

And it also shows you why evil overlords tend to go mad, since unless you can blaze through the puzzle part, a lot of the challenge is the fact that it's hard work to stay on top of it all. You have to clear the puzzles to get resources, but then you have to spend those resources just as fast to expand your base and rehire minions as they inevitably die to the blades of the heroes who intrude upon your lair. As heroes die, resources rain down to refill the puzzle grid... blocking downward expansion until you clear them, but rebuilding your puzzle resources. You get potions to buff or heal your minions, but while you're using them, you're not solving the puzzles, which means you're not getting resources to resummon dead minions... and if you don't solve the puzzles fast enough you don't get the space to build expansions, but while you're solving the puzzles heroes keep attacking and the grid is full again and aaaaagh how did heroes get down to the sanctum level?! Guards! Guards!

Having to continually switch contexts keeps the game from feeling stale during a playthrough, and it's easy to pick up, though some of the mechanics like potions are more challenging. The 'match colored blocks' style puzzles should be familiar to basically everyone by now, and if you can do that, you can figure out everything else through play.

Great potential in this game, even in "early access".