Recent reviews by tatiana

Portal 2 is a physics-based puzzle game. Good games of this genre should have a smooth difficulty curve, as well as varied and interesting puzzles. Having pleasant visuals and a nice atmosphere also helps, because if you are going to spend some time in one place figuring out a solution, it might as well look good. Portal 2 has all of those qualities - in abundance!

Puzzle games don't Need to have amazing storylines. Or stellar voice acting. Or a world you want to see more of. Or well-developed, complex characters. But Portal 2 has All of these as well! And for this - for going above and beyond what is required in its genre - I rate it as a masterpiece, and one of the best games I've ever played.

Before I give my verdict about this game, there is one fact about it you should take into account: it was originally released as part of a bundle called "The Orange Box". Portal was just a "side dish" in there - the "main course" was Half-Life 2, which is an FPS.

This has two consequences. Firstly, the game is rather short - there are speedrunners who manage to complete it in 30 minutes or less, although your first playthrough will certainly be longer. Secondly, some of the puzzles in the last two-thirds of the game (from test chamber 14 onwards) require not only exact portal placement, but precise timing as well. The worst offender is the bit where you need to place a total of 4 portals in under a minute.

This game has a lot going for it - excellent puzzle design, great voice acting, amazing atmosphere. However, in addition to the drawbacks listed above, it is showing its age by now.

So I suggest the following: If you are a puzzle fan, buy it bundled up with Portal 2, which has more puzzle variety, is longer and has a better story. If you are an FPS fan, grab the Orange Box. Either way, you wouldn't be disappointed!

DON'T buy this game if you want a challenge or any significant replay value. My relatively long playtime comes from several re-starts . because I've enjoyed the game so much I actually streamed it on Discord for a friend. The majority of the puzzles are very much on the easy side, with even the hardest not being overly difficult.

However, DO buy this game if you want lovely visuals, a heartwarming story and (especially) something to put a smile on your face on a rainy Saturday afternoon.

As the old man's journey is going to take you an average of only about 3 hours, I recommend waiting for a sale before you grab it.

Despite having played about 50 hours of this game in Alpha, I don't feel like reviewing it today. Instead, I'm going to list its unique features.

1. Lore: the game is set in more-or-less the present day, in an alternate universe where gods and spirits of various world mythologies live among us. Some of them are unchanged from their traditional versions, but others, mostly humanoids, have embraced modernity. Expect werewolf soldiers, pyromaniac clowns and valkyries on motorbikes.

2. Resource system: Every card in the game requires a certain amount of mana, as well as at least one gem of a corresponding colour. The only way to get these is to burn a card in your hand - any card you choose. Burning a card will give you one mana and one gem, and shuffle the card back into your deck. Burning is once-per-card and once-per-turn, so a bit of strategy is involved. On the plus side, "mana screw" and "mana flood" are unheard of, thanks to this system.

3. Lane system: Strictly speaking, these are not lanes - just spaces to put your cards in. There are 7 of them. Each card can "reach" the 3 lanes in front of it, for blocking and attacking purposes. It cannot "hit face" unless all 3 of those lines are free of opponent's cards. However, the "agile" keyword allows you to ignore that restriction, while the "swift" keyword allows to step aside to a neighbouring lane and then attack. Strictly speaking any card can step aside, but without the "swift" ability they are unable to attack after doing so. Therefore, Mythgard is both an "attacker's game" like Hearthstone and a "defender's game" like MTG - it all depends on the board situation and deck makeup

4. Enchantments: These are buffs for the lanes mentioned above. The unique thing about them is that it is possible to place an enchantment Underneath a minion that already occupies it!

5. Game modes: There are many game modes in Mythgard. Apart from the usual Ranked and Casual PvP, PvE and Puzzles, there's also a 2v2 PvP mode! The PvE Draft is free of charge, and the PvP Draft lets you play until you finish the run, no matter how many times you lose!

A few tips to finish off: a) The story mode is a nice tutorial b) Pressing Esc on your keyboard brings up the Options menu, which contains a surprisingly good Guide to the interface and keywords c) Please buy something from the store, at least the Starter Pack, to support the devs, who have managed to combine the best features from every CCG out there and added some of their own cool stuff ;)

When gameplay, artstyle, story and sound design blend together so seamlessly, the result can only be described as "mesmerising"...

I give this game a score of 12 out of 10. Will rewind time and turn the world upside down again!

Minesweeper. In 3D! Without the bomby-explodey sounds that made me jump out of my chair every time. And with numbers that are large enough for my eyes to not tie themselves up in knots trying to see them.

Shame about this newfangled "minimalist" interface, though. How am I supposed to know that the white dot in the top left corner of the screen is the options menu? Luckily, I'm good at guessing...

Other than that, recommended. Especially for those times when you just wanna chill...

Sudoku. Or to be more exact, Kakuro. With hexagons. And dots.

I was reluctant to get it at first - it seemed like a game aimed at first-graders. But hey, Steam sale! Now it's one of my favouriite puzzles ever...

There are only 2 rules. Make sure the dots in any straight line add up to a specified number. And you can only place up to 3 dots in each hex. The computer can place up to 7 (what a cheat!).

This game is only 2 steps away from absolute perfection. First of all, where's the volume slider? I don't want to mute it completely, and I'm sick of having to adjust my pc volume for each play session...

Secondly, when you first start the game you are presented with 2 faces - a green one, and a red one. Clicking on either of them takes you to the level selection. Apparently, choosing the green one draws a little green border around lanes where the dots add up to the correct number - when you turn everything green, you move on to the next puzzle. If you choose the red one, there will be no such borders at all - so if you fill the puzzle up and it doesn't move you on, you need to re-count everything yourself to find the mistake. Now, I know that you need to be accessible to dyslexics and all that, but how difficult is it to simply label those faces "easy" and "hard"?! Would prevent an awful lot of confusion too...

In other words: Devs, please make a second installment ASAP. With more levels. And make sure it's perfect.

After an hour of playing, I thought I understood what the game was about...

Then I discovered I was wrong!

Enjoyed the surprise very much. Recommended!

Many people have compared this to Hearthstone, and I will do the same. This game is much better than Hearthstone in many respects, but in some, it's a lot worse.

Better than Hearthstone:

- Graphics and colour scheme are easier on the eye
- Sound effects are less annoying
- Class abilities are better balanced
- You get 3 mana on your first turn, giving more gameplay choices
- Cash shop less geared towards making money
- More neutral cards (includable in any deck)
- Co-op play mode available

Worse than Hearthstone:

- The story mode is only avaiable for 3 classes as of 28 march 2018
- The story mode is the closest the game has to a tutorial right now, and the difficulty curve is steepish
- The matchmaking system for PvP seems nonexistent
- There seem to be no gameplay guides anywhere, and the wiki is very incomplete

Should I give this game a chance? I'll still give it a thumbs up, but can't guarantee I wouldn't quit in frustration.

After 2 hours of playing, I have completed this game, and feel qualified to write a review.

Let's get the drawbacks out of the way first - the production values for this thing are abysmal! The mazes are simple line drawings, and the balls look almost 2D. At least the background colours are nice...

The control scheme is via the arrow keys, which is quite snappy, for the most part. However, one sometimes needs to steer the ball diagonally, which requires pressing two keys at the same time, slowing things down and "disrupting the flow". As I can't think of a reasonable alternative, I'll let this one slip.

For many years, I have been looking for some traditional, 2D mazes to solve on my computer. Something where the ball didn't make a mark, making the maze repeatable. In that sense, this game is an answer to my prayers. Therefore, I recommend it to anyone!